The Girl on the Train

The plot in this one is a little disjointed and by the end you are wondering what the heck is going on, but it seems to wrap everything up kind of neat. The relationship between Danny and Lexi is confusing and unclear as you are only clued in by his conversation with the detective. Danny and Lexi's conversations are mostly soliloquies, nothing you would hear normal people discuss. Sounds more like they memorized lengthy passages of a thought-provoking novel and repeated them back and forth to one another throughout the movie.

The cinematography and music are very well done. The acting was good, but really not as horrible as some people have reported. I think the relationship between Danny and Lexi could have been fleshed out more. They never even get to a point where they get uncomfortably close to each other, so you wonder why he spent so much energy pursuing her if there is no emotional energy created at some point. It all seems suspiciously platonic, but the why is never clear. Again, the end clears thing up a little in this respect.

Like I said, in the end the confusion is cleared up, but you are left wondering why you were even confused to begin with. You should have enough information to be uncomfortable with what you don't know, not confused wondering what you might have missed, only to find out you didn't miss anything at all.

So see it and make up your own mind. It's a good story regardless.

In New York City, the documentarian Danny Hart (Henry Ian Cusick) is making a documentary about the survivor of a concentration camp Morris Herzman (David Margulies). While filming on the street, Danny becomes obsessed by a woman in the middle of the crowd. He meets her on the train, and she tells him that her name is Lexi (Nicki Aycox). Danny unsuccessfully looks for Lexi at the train station until one day she meets him. They befriend each other and Lexi asks Danny to follow and film her husband. What are her intentions?

"The Girl on the Train" (2014) is a verbose American movie with a very simple story. The good cast, with Stephen Lang, Henry Ian Cusick and Nicki Aycox have good performances, but the messy screenplay does not help them. The dialogs are pointless and tiresome. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Perigosa Atração" ("Dangerous Attraction")

This story does pull you in initially, but by the end turns into mush, with its pseudo-philosophical outlook, which another reviewer astutely summarized, as " a combination of arty arrogance and teenage angst". The story of a Nazi concentration camp victim, which the protagonist was making a documentary about, was the most interesting part of the film. The film presents love, as the biological relationship between members of the opposite sex. I believed this in my adolescence ( "teenage angst" ), but have mostly managed to get beyond this, thank God. The monologue near the end is delivered in such a solemn, pontificating manner, it initially sounds profound, until you think about it for a couple of minutes. You then realize, it is totally concerned with an adolescent's viewpoint of love/lust. The movie would have been much better, if this speech, was omitted. I did find it represented women as conniving and irresponsible, through the female lead. It gave the pathetic, popular excuse, that if the woman is sexually attractive enough, this is OK.

The acting was quite good, as well as, the cinematography.

A very interesting movie that starts with a simple plot line then slowly becomes a rather complex story that I found difficult to follow at times. Maybe it is the constant editing between Danny with Lexi then Danny with Detective Martin then Danny with Morris (the survivor of a Nazi internment camp).

I understood Danny's obsession with Lexi but became lost with their relationship and the murder plot. This is actually a well performed story but difficult to get involved with as you just don't care about the characters and the plot skips around between too many people talking and Danny telling the whole story to the detective.

I would recommend this film to anyone seeking a mystery movie but you better pay close attention or have the movie long enough to watch it twice.

Henry Ian Cusick plays Danny who is an Englishman making documentaries in the US. One day he sees a girl on a train who has been crying. He is strangely drawn to her and decides to act on his impulses. She is enigmatic and mysterious and he finds himself wanting to see her again.

Then they do meet and she uses her feminine ways to get him to act out of character and take him down a path that once he has set foot on it, there is no turning back.

Now this is a well written, filmed and acted film. There is a lot of clever observations on life and some real chemistry between the main players. The film works by using flash backs to flesh out what has already transpired and it is done rather well. The problem is that it is all a bit too contrived and unbelievable and the dénouement is just a bit too much to be taken seriously so it loses marks big time.