Tortuous, tedious and unpleasant psychological crime drama
A divorced alcoholic (Emily Blunt) who regularly travels the train that parallels the Hudson River north of New York City is fixated on a house in her old neighborhood. When the woman of that house comes up missing, the girl on the train becomes entangled in the investigation. Justin Theroux plays her ex-husband, Rebecca Ferguson his new wife, Haley Bennett the missing woman, Luke Evans the missing woman’s husband and Edgar Ramírez her therapist.
“The Girl on the Train” (2016) is a melancholy adult-oriented crime drama/mystery in the mold of “Derailed” (2005), “The Clearing” (2004), "Snow Angels" (2007), “The River King” (2005) and even “Mystic River” (2003). But it’s by far the least of these. As far as technical filmmaking and cast go, there’s no issue. The problem is the unpleasant story, its lack of sympathetic characters and the partly-troubling message at the end.
The tale starts off confusing, but everything naturally comes together by the end and makes sense. Unfortunately, the journey there isn’t very compelling and, like I said, the more you get to know the main characters the less you care for them, with one exception. The ultimate message is worthy, but also troubling if you think about it. I can’t say anymore without giving anything away.
At the end of the day this is an ugly flick with not enough to redeem it. The movies cited above also have seriously unsavory elements, but they override the ugliness one way or another.
The film runs 1 hour, 52 minutes, and was shot entirely in New York: the Hudson River area north of the city, as well as the city itself from Bear Mountain in the closing scene.
GRADE: C/C-