The Girl on the Train

A temporary cure for insomnia. The pace, mystery and thriller aspects were a poor imitation of Gone Girl, which still wasn't a great film. When you no longer care about the lead character, it's an uphill struggle. Halfway through i was hoping a virus would kill them all just to make things interesting. But no, just more flash backs of mild violence, with the narrative limping towards 2hrs. Save time and £, avoid.

Really good thriller. Completely different from what I expected, maybe because I didn't expect too much. I wasn't convinced by Blunt's drunk acting at the beginning & was tempted to switch-off but I'm glad I didn't as the film just got better and better. I also realised that Blunt is a very good actress, just not all that great at acting drunk. Overall just a good old-fashioned whodunnit & well worth putting time aside to watch.

I have not read the book, nor knew the story, so this is just a review of the film as a stand alone piece. I found the characters pretty one-dimensional, especially the male ones, who seemed more like eye-candy than believable human beings. Emily Blunt is a fine actress, but she seems saddled with trying to inject pathos into a character who ping-pongs around in a very Hollywood-lite depiction of alcoholism. Instead a glazed detachment covers everything and whilst this may suit the voyeuristic parts of the story, it just left me finding it hard to fully engage with, or become attached to, the characters. People simply do not behave or talk in this way. The only exception is with the portrayal of Anna, who carries some semblance of normal behaviour and engagement. Perhaps what was compulsive in the novel has been lost in translation, or perhaps the film exposes the weaknesses of the characterisation and plot that were there all along.