The Girl on the Train 2016

     This film is based on a novel by Paula Hawkins, published in 2015 and the fastest-selling adult novel in history.  More than 3 million copies were sold in the United States as of July 2015.  Rachel Watson is divorced and she’s not dealing with it very well at all.  Every day she takes the train to and from New York and she watches the people in the homes along the tracks.  She especially watches the house she used to live in with her husband.  He is now married to Anna and they have a young daughter.  She also watches Megan and Scott Hipwell.  She thinks they are the perfect couple and she wishes she had a life like they have.  One of Rachel’s biggest problems is drinking and she drinks a LOT every day.  She prefers vodka and martinis are especially good!!

     The train is going along the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York.  Rachel suffers a lot of loneliness and isolation and she pines for her past.  She felt she had it all and she regrets that Anna is living among all the furnishings she selected.  She begins to become more of a stalker of the people she is watching.  Her ex-husband claims that Anna is afraid of Rachel and that she tried to kidnap their daughter.  I thought this was good and I thought about the film after viewing.  I didn’t know the good guys from the bad guys either?  It’s very common for people to want to live in the past because they hate their current lives so much.  Divorce is a major life event.    4* (I really liked this movie)

 

112 min, Crime directed by Tate Taylor with Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Edgar Ramirez, Laura Prepon, Allison Janey, Darren Goldstein, Lisa Kudrow, Lana Young.

Note: Imdb 6.5 out of 10, 44% critic 49% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 1 ½*, Amazon 3.7* out of 5* with 2068 reviews, Rolling Stone 3* out of 4*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Hastings-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Ardsley, White Plains, Ardsley-on-Hudson, Irvington, Yonkers, Pleasantville, Bear Mountain, Brooklyn, New York.  Emily Blunt was pregnant at the start of filming and she kept this a secret from the cast and crew except for her friend Justin Theroux.  Production began November 2015 and she was in her fifth month when filming ended in February 2016.  Margot Robbie was considered for the role of Megan Hipwell and Kate Mara was also thinking about this role.  The setting of the novel was in England and the train was going to London.  There are similarities to the Alfred Hitchcock films The Lady Vanishes of 1938, Rear Window of 1954, Psycho of 1960 and Vertigo of 1958.  There is another film with the same title of 2014 but a different subject and a documentary.

Awards: People’s Choice Favorite Thriller Movie.

Nominations:  Emily Blunt Best Leading Actress, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, NTFCA.