While expecting something similar to Gone Girl with a Hitchcockian feel to it. I partly got that. But instead of Hitchcock, I got more Requiem For A Dream.
While those two films are extremely good, The Girl On The Train is a badly structured version of these two films.
The opening scene sets you in nicely. But after that, we got a whole lot of time jumps all over its timeline that reminded me much of Oliver Stone's 'Alexander', which I had problems with. For most of the film, I was busy concentrating to see if we had gone a few months or if we were back to the present day. Thankfully, I was still understanding what was happening the final act was at least its strongest and least confusing part of the film.
I really like Emily Blunt. I saw her as a pretty solid period actor. Then suddenly, her bad-ass role in Edge Of Tomorrow made me see her differently in such a positive way that has made me excited for anything she does. Even the sequel to Mary Poppins in 2018. Sadly for this one, she felt mis-cast for me. While she was most definitely giving it her all. I just felt her face did not match with the character and the general feel of the film. Plus, her character was really hard to root for.
I had pretty much the same feeling with most of the rest of the cast. Luke Evans felt wasted and the role should have been given to someone else less well known. I think he maybe should have switched places with Justin Theroux's character. Edgar Ramirez was o.k. But his character did not have moments to really shine.
The only performances worth putting into the positive light were Haley Bennett and Rebecca Ferguson. Bennett was probably the only true performance and she definitely fitted in nicely to the story and tone. As for Ferguson, I had only known it was her when looking through the cast list after seeing the film. She was pretty unrecognisable, and the blond hair made even harder. After her impressive performance in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, I am always excited to what she will do next. In this one, she was good enough for me to be interested by her character.
The main positives from this was certainly the cinematography and the Danny Elfman score. I liked the colour palette it was going for. It was very David Fincher. That grimy set of colours definitely put in the mystery thriller genre straight away.
Sadly, there is not much good stuff left to talk about. The structure is the films real let-down. There is a solid mystery thriller in here. But its jumping from one moment to the next in random pockets gives you time to work out where you are rather than on the story which also never gains pace or as much tension as you would hope.
While director Tate Taylor has directed some good films such as The Help and Get On Up, this one is a real disappointment.
You will most of your time feeling drunk wondering where you are, then trying to enjoy this movie. I can definitely see at a point why it does make you feel drunk. But I don't think it should done to the extent of being frustrated with the film. There is enough good parts for this to not be a total disaster, and at least it has a satisfying final act. But it is a real shame that this manage to derail (don't usually do puns, but I couldn't resist) itself.
Rating: 6/10
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