The Girl on the Train (2016)

User Review

• 

  TheMovieDiorama

  7 / 10

  Based on the best selling novel, The Girl On The Train is about an alcoholic who takes the train everyday and was the last person to witness a girl who has gone missing. This was hyped to be the biggest thriller of the year, I mean the book is supposed to be great. Now I'm reviewing this without having read the book. Before going into this I was already comparing this to Gone Girl which in my opinion is the best thriller in the last five years, this however was not a bad attempt...but it does have its flaws. Firstly the greatest thing about this adaptation is Emily Blunt, she was so consumed by her character that I didn't recognise her...she was completely enveloped in her role. It was not an easy character to portray either, an alcoholic who believes she is horrible person...there are so many layers. The rest of the cast were also good, Justin Theroux and Luke Evans were particularly great. The build up of the story was developed well, slowly placing breadcrumbs for the viewers to follow. There are quite a few characters who are all possible culprits and each of them have a good amount of screen time in order for us to decide who we think did it. The climactic ending was logical and makes perfect sense so the 'twist' is not ridiculously ludicrous (which a lot of thrillers tend to include). The direction was also great, while not the main function of the film...this is all about story and characters and it succeeds. I also like the structure of the film, mixing in flashbacks and the present time in order to fill in the gaps. There are however some flaws. The first 20 minutes of the film introduces all of the characters in an unimaginable way, it was literally 4 minutes with each character and then the story starts. Due to this structure, the first half of the film does have pacing issues and it does take some time to become fully invested in the story. There are also a few slow motion scenes that are choppily edited, probably to resemble the alcohol taking effect, but the continuous use of this method did seem outdated. Also, I wanted to see more Lisa Kudrow! You can't use an actress from Friends for just 5 minutes, give her more screen time! Overall, The Girl On The Train was a slow paced decent thriller that had a great climax and starred Emily Blunt who was the main attraction, completely captivating and probably her best performance to date.

  Like?

  1 member likes this review.