Last summer I reviewed Paula Hawkins' best-selling novel The Girl on the Train and said that while I appreciated that Hawkins allowed her female characters to be incredibly unlikeable, and never glamorized alcoholism (alcoholism plays a central role in the film and the book), The Girl on the Train is no Gone Girl. I get that books and movies should be judged on their own merits and not in comparison to other books and movies, but it's really hard to separate The Girl on the Train from Gone Girl since the two are both wildly popular crime/mystery novels with unreliable narrators, flawed protagonists, deep undercurrents of misogyny and violence, and...well, they both have "girl" in the title.
Be it book or movie, The Girl on the Train wilts in comparison to the superior Gone Girl.
The Girl on the Train follows Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt, an elegant actress who does a great job playing vulnerable and pathetic), an out of work, alcoholic, divorced 30-something basically living out every woman's worst nightmare: she is an object of pity. She is unwanted, not sexy, lonely. And she is unraveling. Even though she lost her job a year before, she still takes the train into New York City every day, spying on the house she used to share with her husband, Tom (Justin Theroux, sexy as hell), who still lives there with his new wife, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), and their infant daughter.
Consumed with sadness and envy, Rachel also spies on Tom and Anna's sexy, young next door neighbors--she fantasizes that this couple have everything she lost: true, real love. A happy home. A strong bond. So when she sees the female half of the couple kissing another man, it enrages her. She proceeds to get black out drunk at the train station and runs off to confront the woman. She wakes up covered in blood and vomit, with no memory of what happened. When she sees that the young woman, Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett), has gone missing, Rachel wonders if she saw something that night. Or worse, did something.
The film switches points of view between Rachel, Anna, and Megan. All three women seem to match up with a stereotype of womanhood: Anna is the perfect, beautiful mother who has it all: happy baby, sexy husband, nice home. Megan is the sultry (slutty?) young woman with a talent for using her feminine wiles to manipulate men. And Rachel is the sad loser no man would want. Hollywood apparently didn't have the balls to take Rachel's portrayal in the book the whole nine yards: in the novel, she is overweight in addition to being an alcoholic. While Emily Blunt slums it a bit, she's nowhere near being fat.You'll notice that all of these women's personalities and dreams require men to be in the picture. Anna is wanted by a man for her beauty and stability; Megan is wanted for her sexuality, but easily discarded after being used. And Rachel isn't wanted by men at all. I believe Hawkins was attempting to subvert these stereotypes in her book, but in my opinion she didn't subvert them enough.
In the end, of course, it's the men in their lives that drive these women insane. It's men--not other women--who hurt them and play them against one another. Who become jealous when they interact with other men. All three women in the book/movie might be flawed, but it's the men who are destructive.
Both the film and the book seem to want to say something deep about relationships and gender roles, but struggle amidst the massive amount of plot going on. With a constantly shifting point of view, flashbacks, unreliable narrators, an numerous twists, turns, and surprises, The Girl on the Train feels overstuffed and pulpy. What I liked about Gone Girl was that it was so ruthlessly, relentlessly bitter. Gone Girl had some inconsistencies and flaws as well, but it was more focused. The Girl on the Train, much like its protagonist Rachel, is sloppy and all over the place: it hits some of the notes and misses many others.
Still, when the final confrontation happens, the visceral thrill of seeing a beaten down woman fight back is as heady as anything. Most viewers will guess what happened to Megan Hipwell long before the final reveal, but the final scenes are still very good (if, again, pulpy).
The Girl on the Train, like the book it's based on, isn't a masterpiece. But it's not bad either. It's a good popcorn flick for a grey, rainy day. Just maybe don't watch it with your boyfriend or husband.
Grade: C+
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