The Girl on the Train (2016)

“The Girl on the Train” stars Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, and Luke Evans.  Released on October 7, 2016, the film is about an alcoholic who gets caught up in a mystery that involves a missing woman.

The film is directed by Tate Taylor, who also directed Pretty Ugly People, The Help, and Get on Up.  It is based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Paula Hawkins.  Mystery films have a tendency to allow the audience to follow the characters as they attempt to solve something, whether it’s a murder case or a missing person case.  I’m all right with watching these types of films as long as their stories are simple for me to explain to my friends and family.  Oh, and also engaging.  That’s also important.  Clearly, I wasn’t expecting this film to be the next “Gone Girl”, but I was expecting it to have a simple and engaging mystery story.  Unfortunately, I just wasn’t into it.

Pros:
The performances were fine, including Emily Blunt as Rachel.

The tone was suitable for its concept.

Cons:
The story was surprisingly underwhelming.

Some of the plot points can be confusing to those who haven’t read the novel.

The twists didn’t leave that much of an impact.

The pacing was slow, but not too slow.

Final thoughts: “The Girl on the Train” is the type of mystery that’s best left unseen.  Aside from its underwhelming story, some confusing and overstuffed plot points, and its weak execution on the twists, my personal reason as to why I didn’t like it that much is that it gave me a bit too much to fit into my brain.  I know, it sounds ridiculous, but everyone has those ridiculous reasons as to why they didn’t like a certain film as well.  I guess since I haven’t read the novel, I wasn’t able to understand the details as to what’s going on while the film is playing.  However, I’m not going to blame the film because of my problem.  It’s just the fact that I had a hard time explaining what I saw to my friends and family.  I think I might be able to fully get what’s going on if I watch it again, but until then, all I can say about it is that I was not a fan of how it gave me so much information for me to remember.  People who read the novel might be able to understand the plot points in the film.  People who don’t might find themselves thinking way too much.

D+