WASHINGTON 鈥� Call it a seasonal film聽industry trick, but聽it’s a treat knowing that each fall, as the wind cools and the leaves change, a thinking-person’s thriller will dare us to outguess its聽material聽after a summer of mindless superheroes.
In 2013, it was Denis Villeneuve’s nail-biting聽“Prisoners.”聽In 2014, it聽was David Fincher’s shocking “Gone Girl” (2014).聽And last year, it was聽Lenny Abrahamson’s claustrophobic “Room” (2015), which featured just as much聽suspense as聽Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller “Ex Machina” (2015)聽earlier that year.
Now, get ready for this year’s offering: The much-anticipated “The Girl on the Train,” which like Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl,” is based on a best-selling mystery novel聽in聽Paula Hawkins’ pulpy page-turner.
Relocating the setting from London to Westchester County, New York, the film follows an alcoholic divorcee named Rachel (Emily Blunt), who rides the train every day past her former suburban home, where her ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux) lives with his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) and their baby. Gazing out the window, she聽becomes obsessed with a seemingly perfect couple next door, Scott (Luke Evans) and Megan (Haley Bennett),聽only to witness聽a聽clue to a聽mysterious disappearance.
While the聽plot sounds like “Rear Window” (1954) meets “The Lady Vanishes” (1938), don’t expect the masterful聽Hitchcock touch just yet. The presentation聽is far more fragmented, the framing far more gimmicky, the twists far聽more predictable. Yet despite all this, I still enjoyed the trashy hell out of it.
Much of this is due to Blunt, who’s utterly聽convincing as the blackout drunk who can’t remember聽her actions and who’s heartbreaking in her apologies at A.A. meetings. Her slurring, staggering turn is聽all the more impressive considering she couldn’t drink any actual booze during聽her real-life pregnancy, sipping faux vodka from a water bottle with mascara dripping around聽bloodshot聽eyes via聽contacts.
Blunt is on fire, crossing genres ranging “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006), “The Young Victoria” (2009), “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” (2011), “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014), “Into the Woods” (2014) and “Sicario” (2015). With five Golden Globe noms and one win, she is long overdue for an Oscar nod. Could it come for “Girl on the Train” by elevating聽2 1/2-star聽material with a 4-star performance?
At the , Blunt called it the聽most 鈥渦ltimately satisfying part鈥� she鈥檚 ever played.
Her聽transformative聽persona makes Rachel the most compelling of the three “unreliable narrators,” as the film tells its story from the聽differing聽perspectives of three troubled suburban women. She’s also the most sympathetic, as Rebecca Ferguson (“Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”) and Haley Bennett (“The Magnificent Seven”) are transfixing screen presences capable of great work, but are trapped in characters who are given聽contrived motivations for their over-the-top nympho-maniacal impulses.
It’d be easy to chalk this up as some sort of postfeminist, voyeuristic “male gaze” by director Tate Taylor (“The Help,” “Get On Up”), who loves his聽close-ups here. But such a theory聽is too neat for a聽potboiler written by a woman (author Paula Hawkins), adapted by a woman (screenwriter聽Erin Cressida Wilson) and photographed by a woman (cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen).
For each sexpot character playing聽loose with the facts,聽there are counter examples speaking truth to power,聽from the by-the-book gumshoe聽Detective Riley (Allison Janney) to the聽reliable ex-colleague Martha (Lisa Kudrow). Even among聽our聽three troubled narrators, there’s a deceptively profound message hidden beneath the lurid,聽erotic, surface-level sex聽mystery: These three women not only have much more in common than they think, but they actually have a lot to learn from each other.
Perhaps this theme would be easier to see if it weren’t lost in the clutter of shifting perspectives. Taylor no doubt does his best to weave the聽various聽timelines 鈥� introducing each character with title cards 鈥� but it never feels as polished as, say, the conflicting accounts of Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” (1950). Particularly confusing here are unnecessary聽flashbacks to a remote shed in the woods.
Sometimes it’s more effective聽not to see everything from every angle.聽The magic of “Rear Window” was that it maintained just one perspective: Jimmy Stewart gazing out of his window. This allowed us to experience the tension along with him, a聽tension that would have been lost if we jumped across to see Miss Lonelyheart’s聽P.O.V.聽looking back or jumped back in time to see聽the Thorwalds’ arguments.
So while “Girl on the Train” starts as a gripping whodunit barreling down the tracks 鈥� painting the town red with red herrings and聽Danny Elfman’s eerie score 鈥� it gradually loses steam with each shift in time and perspective, feeling like flashy overkill compared to the nuance of HBO’s “The Night Of.”
In the end, when the jig is up, we can’t help but feel a little disappointed.聽Like so many thrillers, the Third Act often becomes the Third Rail when the big reveal doesn’t live up to the juicy onion we’ve been peeling. Here, the climax is too blunt even for Emily Blunt 鈥� drawing unwanted giggles from the audience 鈥� but her powerful performance keeps the finale on the rails just enough, screeching into the station and leaving us happy we at least聽took the ride,聽even if we might not buy another ticket.
For all its flaws, “Girl on the Train” is still a damn good time at the movies. Maybe it’s because this reviewer didn’t read the book, thus found it engaging to solve聽the whodunit. Or, perhaps yours truly聽is simply聽rooting for this genre to succeed. Thrillers too often get a bad wrap by critics who hail their creators in hindsight. Even Hitchcock never won Best Director. Think about that, then recalibrate.
Sure,聽“The Girl on the Train” is far from a Hitchcockian masterpiece like “Rear Window” (1954) or even a gem like David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” (2014), but it’s at least a solid thriller in a criminally underrated genre. Can you beat a genre that asks us to actively engage with its聽material to solve a case? Give me that聽over a mindless summer聽tentpole any day of the week聽and twice in聽October.
This rating is on a four-star scale. See where this film ranks among the year’s best in our .
