Film Review: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

‘What you don’t see can’t hurt you’, would be an apt tagline for the film.
A Hitchcock-sounding title is bound to arouse more than a little curiosity. Based on the 2015 novel by the same name — the fastest selling adult-novel in history — by Paula Hawkins, the film has the alcoholic and depressed Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt), commuting by train to and from New York City. She keeps a close watch (for old times’ sake) on her house where she’d lived with her ex-husband Tom Watson (Justin Theroux). On her journeys, Rachel observes a lovey-dovey couple — Megan and Scott Hipwell (Haley Bennett and Luke Evans), residing a few houses from her earlier residence.

The element of mystery emanates when she sees something in the Hipwells’ house which fills her with consternation, and sets in motion a chain of events that involves Megan’s psychotherapist Dr. Abdic (Edgar Ramirez), Rachel’s ex-husband and his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). And when Megan goes missing the night Rachel wanted

to confront her, the police get involved especially since an inebriated Rachel suffers from a blackout during which she is found bloodied and physically hurt.

While the novel was based in London, the film is set in New York State. The viewer could be forgiven for comparing the film with Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ and finding the latter superior by more than a few degrees. In the master’s chosen genre, that film was supreme… nay, incomparable. Nevertheless TGOTG succeeds in keeping you engrossed, if not spellbound (pun intended). The film is about relationships — complex and interwoven — and getting in and out of them.

Director Tate Taylor helms the project fairly well, despite getting into more sub-plots than necessary. Blunt and Bennett give standout performances, with the rest of the cast too pitching in. Statutory warning: Train travel may be bumpy and prove calamitous — and not necessarily for the traveller.