The girl on the train- Ashdoc’s movie review

Review has spoilers

For starters- the movie should have been named ‘The woman on the train’ instead of ‘girl’, for Emily Blunt is obviously not shown young enough to be called a ‘girl’. But the movie makers probably wanted the movie to appeal to a younger audience.

Emily plays a woman who thinks that her marriage has collapsed because of her drunkenness and the blackouts that occur because of it and also because she can’t conceive a child. She sometimes stalks her ex-husband and his new wife and child, taking the baby in her arms one day until his wife forces her to lay it down. Emily no longer goes to her job and her obsession is to travel to and fro by the same train everyday. The train passes by her ex-husband’s neighbourhood and she can see his family. Also she develops an addiction to watch a beautiful blonde girl and her husband romancing on their house’s balcony many times while watching through the train.

But one day Emily sees the girl kissing another man on the same balcony and she is deeply disturbed by the sight of the perfect romantic marriage breaking down. After a drinking binge, she decides to go and confront the girl and call her a whore, but has a blackout as she goes to confront and does not remember what she saw. Later she comes to know that the girl has disappeared.

So what could have happened? Did the girl just run off with her new lover? Or was she murdered- but by whom ? The psychiatrist whom she was regularly visiting and on whom she was trying to hit on? Her husband in a fit of jealousy? Or did Emily herself murder her but did not remember later due to her blackout? Watch the movie for the answers.

The movie rests on the acting capabilities of Emily Blunt and she carries it off with aplomb. Her acting of a person who is unstable due to heavy drinking is perfect; the voice and expressions and her own anguish at her condition has been thoroughly well acted out. Other actors act well too. Photography is okay and background music is appropriate for the situations.

But even though I have not read the novel on which the movie is based, I could sense that it is not as great as the novel. Of course, except on one point the novel is copied faithfully in the movie according to what I heard. But I was not fully convinced when the mystery was solved. The person who did what he/she did on a reason that does not fully qualify as a valid reason for doing that; many people would let things solve themselves out if confronted with the same situation. The situation was not extreme enough to warrant taking the step that person did. Or so I thought, for others who see the movie might disagree.

Verdict—decent

Three stars