Elizabeth Both
A&E Editor
“Where’d she go? Is she gone? Murdered?” This was basically what all the headlines and marketing for the 2014 mystery thriller “Gone Girl” sounded like. Personally, it is one of my favorites films of all time; however, it became the “Most Terrible Date movie,” (If you’ve seen it, then you definitely know why). Two years later, what’s back in the theaters? Another mystery thriller based on a best selling novel: “The Girl on the Train.”
“The Girl on the Train” seems like Gone Girl from the outside, but the two books are quite different. Train’s protagonist is Rachel. Each day on her way to work she takes the train and watches one particular house. She becomes obsessed with this couple from that house and looks forward to seeing them. It even gets to the point that she nicknames them Jason and Jess. Rachel feels envious towards them, since they seem to have a happy life that she always wanted, especially with her ex-husband Tom who happens to live on the same street.
Rachel is a terrible alcoholic and her behavior got her fired from her job in London. Jess is actually Megan, while Jason is actually Scott. Megan isn’t content in the marriage she has with Scott and sleeps with her therapist. Megan is undeniably bored and soon disappears.
Rachel feels as if she needs to go to the police with the information she has seen from the train, but her drunken manner is not taken seriously by the cops. Rachel knows something happened that night but her memories are blurred together, and she thinks she could’ve committed a murder.
The movie got mixed reviews, with most critics hammering it for the changed location-London to New York. Emily Blunt who plays Rachel in the adaption is perfect, but knowing that the film is set in New York City and not London changes the whole dynamic of the movie. It captured the eerie sense of the novel but did it really capture fans of the book? I enjoyed the film, but it wasn’t a cultural revelation like its sister film, “Gone Girl.” Was it the directing? Possibly. Was it the screenplay? Probably. Believe me, it’s still an enjoyable movie. It captures an autumnal presence with the wet leaves and fall colors in different shots. The performances are well done and it’s always fun to see a bestseller come to life on the big screen, but to put it simply it was no “Gone Girl.”
