The Girl on the Train: Movie Review

For me movies are about the experience.  Whether it be a night of hand holding and popcorn sharing with your significant other, a family event where parents and grandparents join to see a movie on a holiday, or a group of friends seeing the latest movie they've been waiting for at midnight- yes you are seeing a movie, but you are also making memories.  This was one of those times the night I saw The Girl on the Train.  I went with girlfriends from work and was surrounded by other females in the audience who were seeing it with their girlfriends. Yes there were couples too, but you could tell this was a movie many gals wanted to see with their friends.  What struck me with this movie was that it was not your typical "chick flick."  This movie was based on a book about  an alcoholic who gets herself mixed up in a murder and eventually finds out she could have been the killer, if only she didn't drink so much causing her to forget what she did that night.  Yeah......not your typical girl comedy, romance, or whatever else us girls like to see.  It was such a great movie though and I think showed a lot of symbolism and unity for women so who else would you want too see it with other than your girls?

Rachel wasn't always an alcoholic.  It started after several failed attempts to have children with her husband, Tom.  Not being a mother was more than she could handle so she did what she could to mask the pain by drinking away her sorrows.  One affair and divorce later, not on her end, and she finds herself alone and without a job.  All she has is her liquor and many episodes where she stumbles into her old home where her husband and his new wife and baby now live, or leaves harassing messages on her ex's voicemail. Instead of looking for a job, she takes the train each day to the city so it looks like she has a job to her roommate.  This is where Rachel becomes obsessed with a couple she sees on her commute.  She fantasizes about this couple she sees out of her train window each day because they remind her of what she used to have.  One day something seems off and she sees the woman kissing another man.  This sets Rachel off and convinces her she has to do something about it.  She ends up getting off the train and into one of the worst nights of her life.  She wakes up the next day covered in vomit and blood then finds out Emma, the girl she'd been watching, is dead.  Rachel has all of these flashes of what she think may have happened, but she doesn't know what the truth is.  She even gets the gumption to tell Emma's widow of Emma's affair she thinks she was having.  The more involved Rachel gets the more she feeds off of it since it gives her a tie to Emma and her life.  The question is, did Rachel kill Emma and will she ever remember what really happened that night?

When movies are based on books people tend to hate on the movie and claim the book is better.  I won't do that.  I know the movie is going to have differences and I don't care.  I read books because I like to read and I see movies because I like to see movies.  One does not discount the other from my perspective.  I did enjoy that the movie followed the same pattern as the book where it shows various perspectives from different character's eyes.  Some parts of the movie we find out more behind Emma's secret life she lead before her death and others we see the life Rachel used to live before the alcohol took over.  Towards the end, you even see what really happened when Emma died.  For whose who have not read the book, I will not spoil it for you but just know- you are going to have your mind blown when you find out what really happened to Emma.  Emily Blunt does not fit the physical description of Rachel in the book, but who cares?  She portrayed her character perfectly when it comes to the struggle and raw emotions she experienced.  It was truly a talented performance on her part.  This movie rated 44% on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.7/10 on IMDB.  I do think the pacing felt off, but would still give it a 7/10 for an excellent plot, suspense, and emotional appeal.