By Kara Lewis
At the Women’s Center, Friday is our favorite day of the week. Okay, that’s not so unique, but we have a pretty good reason: Every other Friday throughout fall, we’ve been watching feminist movies, crafting, and chowing down on pizza.
Sounds like the best way to start off your weekend, right? Well, next Friday, Oct. 27, join us for a noon viewing of popular thriller The Girl on the Train. Read my thoughts on the film below.
For months after Paula Hawkins released her domestic thriller The Girl on the Train, readers and critics hailed her as the next great modern mystery writer. But how does the movie adaption compare?
Much like its literary counterpart, the film The Girl on the Train ascended to immediate box office acclaim. This feat remains relatively expected, given a plot unrelenting in its evocative grittiness and a talented cast fronted by Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt.
Blunt stands out as the film’s strongest player. She convincingly portrays the unstable Rachel Wilson, eliciting a complex swirl of emotions as audiences grapple with disgust, sadness, empathy, shock, and distrust towards the fascinatingly flawed character.
Overall, this jarring mix of realism and dis-likability of all the film’s characters is precisely what makes it impossible for viewers to take their eyes off the screen. We find out that the nurturing, stay-at-home mother used to be a mistress. The beautiful, young wife has a tragic past. A handsome, charming husband becomes a murder suspect when his possessiveness is revealed. The film complicates stereotypes– especially female stereotypes– to reveal more nuanced, intersecting identities.
The Girl on the Train derives much of its suspense and horror from how easy it is envision. It doesn’t feel like an unbelievable tale weaved from exaggerations and plot holes, but instead pushes people’s actions, regrets, and hasty, breaking point solutions to the extreme.
Another intriguing facet of the film lies in it unfolding through the eyes of women. Viewers are exposed to the inner-lives of Rachel Watson (Blunt), Anna Watson (Rebecca Ferguson) and Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett), The Girl on the Train’s three split perspectives. These women all end up being connected by surprising, increasingly gnarled threads.
In fact, the film could probably spawn a book of feminist essays due to its interesting arguments about themes such as fertility, infidelity, and abuse.
My only criticism towards The Girl on the Train is its dragging pace. The first half of the movie feels like backstory, complete with occasionally confusing time jumps. Then it tries to rapidly make up for this by cramming plot into the last climatic 30 minutes.
For those who have read the book, this overwhelming surge in plot towards the end will feel familiar. However, the film’s attempt is less tactful, and the steady hints that Hawkins incorporated throughout the novel are missing.
Nevertheless,The Girl on the Train is a must-see for those who loved Gone Girl, those who search for character development in every storyline, and those who are unafraid to look at the twisted webs of everyday life with a microscope. Problems with pacing aside, the acting, plot twists and characters ensure that this film will be enjoyed for both readers of the book and a completely new audience.
This review originally appeared in University News.