Film review: The Girl on the Train is derailed by a lack of suspense

The film, starring Emily Blunt, is largely faithful to the bestselling book by Paul Hawkins, but the audience has its Eureka moment much too early.

Emily Blunt in The Girl on the Train. Barry Wetcher
Powered by automated translation

The Girl on the Train

Director: Tate Taylor

Stars: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux

Three stars

Author Paula Hawkins says she was inspired to write The Girl on the Train by Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Rear Window (1954).

Tate Taylor, the director of the film adaptation of Hawkins's book that sold 15 million copies, would have done well to take some notes from the master of suspense. While his film is largely faithful to the book, by keeping nearly all of the intricate plot elements, it has sacrificed character development, suspense and mystery. Fans of the book might be glad that it sticks so closely to the novel, but as a film in its own right, it lacks the nuance that made Taylor's adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's The Help (2011) so entertaining.

That’s not to say a few cosmetic changes have not been made on the way from page to screen. The action has shifted from England to the outskirts of New York City, and while main character Rachel Watson, played by Emily Blunt, remains British, she is not the frumpy, overweight character Hawkins wrote, however she is still an emotional wreck.

The divorcee rides the train wearing no make-up, with chapped lips, alcohol in her pocket and a heavy heart. She stares out the window and imagines all the better lives out there, where the grass is greener.

But before we can get too acquainted with her mindset, the story jumps to the perspectives of two women she watches from the train: Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) the new wife of Rachel’s ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux) and Megan (Haley Bennett), a woman with what seems like a dream life who is married to the dashing Scott (Luke Evans).

The different narrators are a prominent part of the novel, but in the film the transition between them happens too soon. We are not sufficiently invested in Rachel’s story before we are drawn into the lives of Megan and Anna. Then Rachel becomes a prime suspect in a crime and turns into an unlikely Miss Marple as she seeks to uncover the truth.

The movie races along at such a rollicking pace it is always entertaining, and Blunt is eminently watchable as she tries to piece together her patchy memory of the night of the crime.

Is she guilty? Taylor tries to sell this element of doubt to the audience, but makes the fatal mistake of compensating for a lack of suspense and intrigue by making the villain too over-the-top. As a result, the audience has its Eureka moment much to soon and can easily guess whodunit – and it’s at that moment the shock turns to schlock.

artslife@thenational.ae