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Laramie Movie Scope:
The Girl on the Train

Unhappy housewives in murder mystery soap opera

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by Robert Roten, Film Critic
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January 3, 2017 -- I skipped this when it came to the local theater, but finally watched it last night. It is about what I expected, too. It is sort of a voyeuristic murder mystery soap opera. The murder mystery isn't hard to figure out once you dispense with the fake clues.

The main character is an alcoholic divorced woman, Rachel (Emily Blunt) wallowing in regret and self-pity for her lost marriage to the point where she rides a train back and forth all day to catch a glimpse of the life she might have had. This is the absolute antithesis of the confident, empowered, strong character Blunt played in “Edge of Tomorrow.” Rachel is an emotional wreck who feels worthless because she was unable to produce a baby for her ex-husband, Tom (played by Justin Theroux of “Miami Vice”). What is this, 1950?

As she rides the train each day in a drunken stupor, she looks out to see the house in the upscale neighborhood she used to live in, now inhabited by the woman who replaced her, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson of “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”) and Evie, the baby that Rachel could not have. If this seems stupid, it is. Rachel's character in this movie is an over-the-top cliché a self-destructive, alcoholic, mentally unstable, needy, self-loathing mess.

However, her character changes radically in the film's third act, when we find out that the flashbacks we saw earlier in the film were false, and the reality of the situation is very different that what was shown earlier in the film. Once we start to glimpse what Rachel's memories should have been in the first place you can see where the story is headed. This misdirection is blamed on Rachel's blackout spells and her alcoholism, but it is really just a shell game of a plot device.

Another key player in the story is a next door neighbor, Megan (played by Haley Bennett of “The Magnificent Seven”) who is another unhappy housewife. Her husband, Scott (Luke Evans of “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”) wants Megan to produce a baby, but she is hesitant, for reasons revealed late in the film. One day on the train, Rachel sees Megan kissing her psychiatrist, Dr. Kamal Abdic (Édgar Ramírez of “Hands of Stone”). When Megan goes missing, Rachel reports what she saw to the police, but since she as drunk at the time, saw it from a distance, and Rachel is a suspect in the case, police are skeptical.

When Megan turns up dead, Rachel is a suspect because she was seen wandering, drunk, near where Megan disappeared, engaging in suspicious, stalking behavior. It turns out she had once sneaked into Tom's and Anna's and picked up the baby, Evie. Rachel, drunk, then walked out into the back yard with Evie, to the horror of her parents. It is not the only time that Rachel engaged in stalking behavior. Megan lives next door to Tom and Anna, and Megan looks a bit like Anna. The police theory is that Rachel, jealous of Anna, might have killed Megan by mistake, thinking her to be Anna.

When Tom and Rachel were married, Tom was having an affair with Anna, hence the jealousy on the part of Rachel. You can see the similarities of this plot to a standard kind of soap opera plot. The answer to the murder mystery becomes clear as soon as Rachel starts remembering what really happened during the last couple of years, instead of those phony memories she had earlier in the film. The climax of the film is somewhat satisfying, even after all that phony baloney that preceded it.

This story reminds me a bit of “50 Shades of Grey” in that both feature submissive, passive women who judge themselves primarily by the needs and desires of men. In these films the women finally wise up and take control at the very end of the story, and that is supposed to make up for all the voyeurism and passivity that goes before. I resent having to suffer through all that nonsense for such a brief payoff at the end. This film rates a C.

My problem with this film is not with the acting. Emily Blunt gives a great performance, as does Allison Janey (“Spy”) who plays the no-nonsense Detective Riley, the only main female character who is nobody's fool.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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Copyright © 2017 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.
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Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at my last name at lariat dot org. [Mailer button: image of letter and envelope]

(If you e-mail me with a question about this or any other movie or review, please mention the name of the movie you are asking the question about, otherwise I may have no way of knowing which film you are referring to)