THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN review

The Girl on the Train is a complicated and convoluted story line that forces you to pay very close attention to the plot, as it bounces around between characters, while building up to and revolving around a murder.

The film stars Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Edgar Ramírez, Laura Prepon, Allison Janney, Darren Goldstein, & Lisa Kudrow. It's directed by Tate Taylor (The Help, Winter's Bone)

The short description of the plot goes as follows:

A divorcee becomes entangled in a missing persons investigation that promises to send shockwaves throughout her life.

But the story line can get rather convoluted.

The Girl on the Train is the story of Rachel's (Blunt) life post-divorce. She commutes daily on a train to New York, and coincidentally, the train passes by her old house. The same house that she lived in with her husband, who happens to still live there with his new wife and child.

As she tries to forget the pain, she starts watching a couple from her train, who live a few houses down from her old place, Megan (Bennett) and Scott (Evans). She fantasizes about what a wonderful life they might have, but one day she sees Megain with another man in the house, which kicks in an alcohol-induced rage.

The next day she wakes up covered in blood with one hell of a hangover, sporting a number of wounds but she can't remember anything from the bight before.

Then Megan turns up missing and Rachel feels compelled to become involved in the case and tries to find out what happened to Megan or what happened to herself during those missing hours of her memory.

But all intent purposes, it does not look like something good was done by Rachel, but what? To who? Why? Well, we think we know why.

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In the first act this film weaves a complicated tale of character history where you really have to pay attention. It's a bit complicated so by all means, do not watch the film casually.

As the second act kicks in, things the complicated weaving of the tale only starts to settle down a little bit as you start to grasp who is who... but man, so many characters look like each other, it's almost confusing until you settle into the story.

The third act is when things start to settle out and paying attention starts to pay off. And oh, does it.

Blunt is amazing at stirring up your emotions about her character... everyone else plays out their roles wonderfully around her.

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It's a slow weave of a story, but it keeps you thinking.

Sure, it got 6.5/10 on IMDb, but I think the score is that low because of the convolution of the story details. It's a smart film that forces you to pay attention and keeps you guessing or wondering until that final pay out.

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