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Review: Poor direction, script derail 'Girl on the Train'
GUS HUNNINGHAKE
@gushunninghake
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The most scrutinized films in the modern era are arguably those adapted from bestselling novels. These films are either universally loved ("The Martian") or hated ("The Twilight Saga") by critics and viewers alike. This love or lack thereof depends on the film's faithfulness to its source material and how well it's actually put together. "The Girl on the Train," the most recent bestselling novel adaptation, stays relatively faithful to its source, but fails to be put together well enough for it to matter.
Revelations happen too fast, with no buildup whatsoever, and all but one of the twists fail to feel impactful in any way."
Directed by Tate Taylor and adapted from Paula Hawkins' novel of the same name, "The Girl on the Train" stars Emily Blunt as Rachel Watson, a recently divorced, recently fired alcoholic who spends her days riding a train. She enjoys watching people from the train, specifically one couple who lives near her old home. One day, Rachel spots the woman in the couple with another man. She wakes up days later to find that this woman has gone missing. Rachel feels somewhat responsible, but all the drinking and blackouts prevent her from knowing the truth. So she decides to get involved in the mystery, sending her on a path towards an end that she never could imagine.
The only positive part of this film is Blunt's performance as Rachel. She does a fine job of portraying someone so affected by alcoholism that parts of her life are gone from memory. The constant strain to remember her actions is well-realized by Blunt, and she weaves herself into the narrative quite well.
Sadly, her performance is about the only one in the film with much effort. Megan (Haley Bennett), the woman who goes missing, is about as thin and lifeless as she could be. Her lines are dull, there are no redeemable qualities to her actions and by the time her big character reveal comes, it feels flat and pointless, despite its importance.
Scott (Luke Evans), Megan's husband, is similarly flat, but in more of a "look at me, I'm an attractive male and offer no malleable character traits" kind of way. Rachel's ex, Tom (Justin Theroux) and his new wife, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) give decent performances, but have very little screen time for them to matter.
In all fairness, these performances aren't solely the fault of the actors involved. The screenplay, written by Erin Cressida Wilson, is where most of the blame should land. There is a lot of dull and poorly written dialogue that only restricts the characters to certain stereotypes. Even Blunt can't escape her bad lines. It seems as if there was no time and effort put into writing a script that could actually mold each character into something worth watching.
Another big problem lies in the narrative. Mystery films are often successful when they take time to build the story toward revelations and twists. Allowing the characters to envelop the world they're in and unknowingly make decisions that lead toward these events builds tension and makes a story worthwhile. This film does none of that. Revelations happen too fast, with no buildup whatsoever, and all but one of the twists fail to feel impactful in any way. This is mainly due to Taylor's uneven direction and the lack of a well-written script.
In the end, "The Girl on the Train" squanders its interesting source material. The whole thing feels more like a made-for-TV melodrama than a big-budget thriller. Poor direction, stale performances and a scattershot script send this film off the tracks before it can even leave the station.
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