THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

US, 2016, 112 minutes, Colour.
Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Edgar Ramirez, Alison Janney, Lisa Kudrow.
Directed by Tate Taylor.

A number one bestseller by Paula Hawkins, this was a much anticipated film version. Perhaps audiences were expecting something like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. However, this is a film much smaller in scope, smaller in its plot, depending on the complications and the style of storytelling.

It is a New York story, a story of New York State, especially with the trains running from New York City upstate along the Hudson River, pleasing scenery, and the ability to have a close look at many of the houses on the way, even some close-ups of the people who lived there. This is the point of view of Rachel Watson, a regular commuter. She is the girl on the train – but, at the end, she makes a comment that through the experiences she is no longer the girl; she is the woman on the train.

As mentioned, the complications come in the storytelling. After being introduced to Rachel, with the caption of her name, we soon see another caption, Megan, with her explaining herself in a voice-over, followed by Anna and her story. The lives of the three women will intertwine, Each of the women has dealings with Tom, formerly the husband of Rachel but divorcing her after a failure in her becoming pregnant and IVF treatment and the lack of finance for further trials. He is now married to Anna and they actually do have a baby. For some time Megan has been a nanny in their household.


In fact, pregnancy is an important theme in the story, Rachel and her failure, Anna and her success, Megan and her stories of several pregnancies. To complicate matters, the actresses portraying Megan and Anna, Haley Bennett and Rebecca Ferguson, both blonde, do resemble each other.

But the focus of the film is certainly on Rachel.It is a star turn for British actress, Emily Blunt, who has had a successful career in England and the United States for a decade. Rachel is a disturbed woman, saddened by her failure to get pregnant, obsessed with her former husband, sometimes stalking his new wife and child, an alcoholic who does go to an AA meeting, but who has memory lapses and blackouts. She has also lost her job and has been travelling on the train, back and forth, for over a year. Her life seems to be going nowhere.

When Megan disappears, Rachel decides to act on what she has seen with Megan and her psychiatrist (Edgar Ramirez) on the veranda of Megan’s house. She visits Megan’s husband (Luke Evans), creating difficulties for him and decides to become a patient of Megan’s psychiatrist as well. The two men also becomes the target of suspicions by two detectives (one played by Alison Janney).

The structure of the film is also complex, or complicated, the action taking place in the present but, frequently, captions coming up on the screen indicating action of months earlier, weeks earlier, days earlier. This gives the audience an opportunity to create all kinds of scenarios with all kinds of speculations on characters and motivations – until a revelation at the end which, when one thinks of it, is rather commonplace.

Were the story to be told in direct narrative, it would be fairly slight and developments rather familiar – which means that the film relies very much on the jigsaw structure and its tantalising its audience.

1. The bestselling novel? The adaptation? A version of the story?

2. The New York story, New York State, the city, the train rides, the river, the woods, the homes and observation? The police precincts? The score?

3. The complexity of the plot: the introduction to the three women, the different times, the shift back to the past? The audience putting the pieces together?

4. The title, the reference to Rachel and her comment at the end that she had been girl on the train and had now matured? The narration, her character, on the train, observing, the house with Megan? Her own life, the Megan focus?

5. Megan, the introduction, looking after the baby, her explaining her different jobs? Her relationship with Anna, with Tom, with the baby, her work at the gallery, her marriage?

6. Anna, her relationship with Tom, having the baby, Rachel attempting to abduct the baby? As a wife, the domestic life?

7. And the portrait of Rachel, alcoholic, erratic behaviour, collapses, blackouts? Her being cared for by Cathy? Her stalking Anna and the baby? The feelings of hurt, the unhappy memories, her behaviour at the party with the eggs, Martha’s reaction, Tom saying he was being fired because of her? The attempted pregnancy, failure, not enough money, Tom leaving her? Her going to the AA meeting and explaining herself? Her drinking, going to the bars, the man on the train and her accosting him in the bar – and later seeing the explanation of his considerate behaviour at the tunnel? Her sad life?

8. The police, detectives, the style? Confronting Rachel, the interrogations, suspicions? The continued pursuit of the investigation?

9. Rachel, going to see Scott, her seeing Megan kissing the psychiatrist on the balcony? Her lying about knowing Megan? Scott, his relations with his wife, the effect of her being missing, as a character in himself, controlling his wife, his staying the night and cared for by Rachel, his arrest, the psychiatrist and his giving information, Scott as target? His confronting Rachel, her escape, the going to the police, accusing him of assaulting her? His watching at the end?

10. The psychiatrist and Megan, the sessions, probing, her talking about having the baby when young, the father walking out on her? Her compulsions, the romantic attitude towards the psychiatrist, the scene of his reassuring her and being misinterpreted by Rachel? Rachel going to see him, lies, his astute comments, the talking, his stirring things in Rachel’s psyche?

11. The revelation about Tom, the different perspective on him, the marriage to Rachel, her failure to be pregnant, at home, the party, Rachel’s behaviour, her tantrum, his reaction and saying he was being fired because of her? The revelation of his affair with Anna? Marrying her, her pregnancy and the baby? His seeming the devoted husband?

12. His being violent, Rachel and his lies? The affair with Anna and the deceiving of Rachel? Anna, concerned, searching the computer for the password? The phone? Megan the affair? Megan pregnant, the encounter at the tunnel, his treatment of Rachel and violent, going to the woods, the issue of pregnancy and abortion, Megan falling, his killing her?

13. Rachel, beginning to remember, the encounter with Martha on the train, hearing the truth about Tom, Martha’s concern, confronting Tom? Anna, the baby, Tom hitting Rachel, her recovery, his attempt to choke her, her hitting him, the pursuit outside, Rachel stabbing him, Anna turning the weapon in his throat?

14. The arrival of the police? The interrogation, Rachel, Anna confirming what Rachel had done?

15. The ending on the train, a new Rachel?

16. The plainness of the plot if told in straight narrative but the effect of being told in a convoluted way?