A Garota no Trem

This is an excellent mystery/thriller that had me 'grasping at straws' for a solid hour or so, trying to figure out who was 'good' and who was 'bad.' And...it's punctuated with a "killer ending!" (Yes, pun intended ~)

Plot in a nutshell: An alcoholic loner subject to blackouts (Emily Blunt) immerses herself in a missing-persons case in which she becomes a prime suspect.

(First let me state I have not read the novel on which this film is based. So my review and impressions are formed solely from watching the movie, where they should be. It seems most of the negative reviews here are from people who read the novel, then apparently watched this film with a notepad in hand, already knowing the story and the outcome but eagerly marking down every area that doesn't match the book, and then coming here to write negative reviews to vent about it. No offense to them (or you, if you are one of them), but the point here is to review the FILM - not to compare and contrast the film to the novel (or to anything else, for that matter). If you want to write a review of the book, go to Goodreads.com and write it there! This site is for the film, and it's what I want to know about. All of these reviews on here telling me about the book, and then giving a poor rating because the film isn't exactly like the book, are irrelevant and out of place. Let's talk about the FILM....)

And yes, it's a very good one. Emily Blunt does such a masterful job of playing an alcoholic social outcast, I agree with some others on here wondering why she wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award. It's that good. She plays one of three women around whom the story largely revolves (Rebecca Ferguson and Haley Bennett are the others). These three are all loosely connected in various ways that are not obvious at first but, through flashbacks and story shifts, we are gradually shown how they tie together. One of the three goes missing and the plot then shifts to solving that mystery.

Saying much more than this will ruin the story so I'll draw the line there. But I will say I found this to be highly entertaining and was constantly shifting my opinion as to who was the guilty one. At one point I guessed right (as it turned out) but I changed my opinion based on what was happening, only to find out I had been right 20 minutes ago! But that's the beauty of this film - just when you think you've got it figured out, you are given a new shred of information that makes you question everything you'd accepted before. That's good story-telling and worthy of acclaim. It's not a stretch to say "The Girl on the Train" comes from the same mold as the Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock classics. If you like those, you'll probably like this too.

8/10. Effective and intriguing mystery that deserves a much higher rating than it's current 6.5 here. Would I watch again (Y/N)?: Yes.

We've all experienced the same monotonous train commute to work in our lives at some point. You go by the same places and see the same faces each and every day. None of us have quite had a commute that changes our lives quite like Rachel Watson in The Girl on the Train though.

Emily Blunt stars as Rachel Watson, an alcoholic divorcée who takes the same train to work each day. On her journey, Rachel fantasises about the relationship of Scott (Luke Evans) and Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett), who live a few doors down from her ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux), and his new wife, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson).

Rachel's unstable state leads her on a downward spiral that sees her embroiled in a missing persons investigation that will change her life forever.

Based on the best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train is a mystery thriller that reminded me of David Fincher's Gone Girl, which is not a bad thing at all. Now, while I don't think this is a better film than Gone Girl, I do think it serves up a worthy mystery that kept me guessing right up until the twist/reveal later on in the story.

The narrative is told from the point of view of the three main female characters; Rachel, Anna and Megan. It could have easily become quite convoluted and messy yet Erin Cressida Wilson's screenplay allows things to move along smoothly and without any confusion.

A lot of my hopes for this film were depending on the twist/reveal that would undoubtedly arrive in a mystery like this. Thankfully I can say that it was very well done and actually offered something totally different to what I was expecting. Yes, it gets a little far-fetched in the final act but if you go with it, The Girl on the Train really is a suspenseful watch.

Coming to the performances, The Girl on the Train features a great lead performance from Emily Blunt and a solid supporting cast, Haley Bennett and Rebecca Ferguson jumping on the paranoia train with Emily Blunt to great effect.

So, if you're a fan of either mysteries or thrillers, The Girl on the Train will be a journey you want to go on. If not, best to wait at the platform for the next train.

I almost turned this movie off at 30 minutes. That's my cutoff time for bad ones. For some reason, I left it playing and kinda watched it. It was a very slow burn. The first 30 minutes were a snoozer. But then just after my cutoff time, the plot started moving forward. If you are going to watch this, plan on being bored for 30 minutes but the rest of the movie more than makes up for it. And you really have to watch it. There are so many entanglements that you won't know who is doing what to whom and why without really paying attention.

It is worth it. Don't want to give anything away but it has a real ending (unlike lots of modern movies) and it will satisfy you with the way it all comes out. You CANNOT predict the ending. You cannot see it from 30 minutes away. Just wait for it. It will justify your time spent (1 hour, 51 minutes).

I watched this straight after the book and I think reading the book first was a big mistake (the book was brilliant!). They cut out so many parts of the book which made their personality traits believable and to understand why they were the way they were and actually feel empathy for the characters. I think the film wouldn't have been such a disappointment for me if the book wasn't such a page turner, so if you've already read the book - don't bother with this film.

Well, I enjoyed this movie to the point I would watch it again to catch some of the nuances you miss during first viewing. The story is a bit complicated with several couples in overlapping relationships, but that makes it interesting. The actors are all good with real responses to the surprise events. Unveiling the main character's, Rachel, story in drunken snippets adds to the tension. Some other reviewers complain about plot points that don't make sense but, in some cases, it's because the reviewer did not understand the plot and the inter-relationships of the characters. Special credit to Emily Blunt and Haley Bennet for portraying the angst in their personal situations.