The Girl on the Train

Seen at the Roxy Cinema in Nowra

Bea says:  I had heard a great deal about this deeply anticipated film prior to seeing it this past Sunday morning at the Roxy cinema in Nowra.  I had heard it reviewed on ABC’s The Mix, and on BBC’s Women’s Hour, and everybody seems to be talking about it.  So despite not having read the book, I roughly knew the story, and I knew some of the twists the plot might take.  I knew that the central characters were all flawed, that it was in the vein of Gone Girl, and that the setting had been moved from the UK to New York State for the purposes of the film.

The story did draw me in – I quite like a good thriller-style film, even though I could guess where it might be going, and in that regard it is a diverting film, beautifully shot in a picturesque location, and with strong performances from the cast.  They were lucky to get Emily Blunt for the lead – she played it very well indeed; in less assured hands it may have descending into cliché.

Because it was all rather derivative to be honest – a mash up of Fatal Attraction and Gone Girl, with reference to some classic film noir as well – Gaslight, for example.  What disappointed me from a female writer and a strong female production and direction team, was how stereotyped it all was. 

The women are anxious and neurotic.  The two women who can’t, or don’t, have children are presented with deep personal and psychological problems as a result.  Working is optional for women, it seems.  It was like something out of Mad Men.  

Thank goodness for Allison Janney’s police detective, the only vaguely liberated role model amongst them – and even she was told what to do at one point by her male colleague.  And yes the “truth” is unravelled, and a particular man gets his just desserts, but the message isn’t very feminist – the female characters only take control out of desperation, not out of good decision making.

Don’t expect anything creative or new – but it is diverting if you need an absorbing story for a couple of hours.

***

Cecil says: I also thought Emily Blunt played the drunk, hallucinating, traumatised train passenger well. Whoever did her makeup for the opening scenes and later did a great job making her look dry-lipped, gaunt and bleary-eyed. It takes a few scenes for us to realise her problem is drink, but she immediately hits the viewer as someone deeply troubled.

Opening scenes are always a key pointer to how a film will pan out for me, and the start of The Girl on the Train doesn’t disappoint. I didn’t recognise the small town on the banks of the Hudson, but the buildings along the track were classic hundred year old beauties, like those we spotted on our first weekend away in the States six years ago when we took a train that slowly crawled through Williamsburg.

I actually didn’t know this film was adapted from a book about a British story set around London. From all my commuting into London, it’s really hard to imagine how these wealthy middle class American characters were represented in the original book.

The story is certainly gripping, though the overall tone was a tad darker than I would have chosen for a bright spring morning. Blunt acts well, though there are times when you wonder if some twists are really based on reality: why didn’t she call cop Allison Janney earlier than the moment when he life was suddenly at risk? And I found it hard to imagine an experienced therapist letting himself get drawn into such an intimate and boundary-less relationship with one of his female clients.

Great also to see one of the less visible actors from Friends doing something different. Took me a double take to realise it was actually her…

***.5