Get on this Train

Johnson Thomas

Paula Hawkins' super successful novel of the same name, was a shocker when it came out but the film version scripted by Erin Cressida Wilson is not exactly a happy transference. The novel itself is a difficult, though not impossible one to adapt and Wilson’s effort gets the mechanics of it right but the shocking effect of the novel does not materialise. At best, Wilson manages to keep the format intact and even gets us to empathise with the lead eventually but the stinging tension and lacerating drama of a ‘Gone Girl’ is missing from the byplay. 

Hitchcokian (obviously inspired by ‘Rear Window’) in its inveiglement, this complicated murder mystery depends heavily on the placement of its clues within the narration in order to achieve its denouement.

The protagonist is a down and out, sozzled out of her wits divorcee, Rachel (Emily Blunt) who takes to aimless train travelling through the pathways of her lurid, unhappy past in order to keep at bay the nightmares associated with her present hollow existence. And while she is at it, she involves herself in weaving mysteries about the women, two in particular- Megan(Hayley Bennett) who is married to Scott(Luke Evans) and works as a part-time Nanny at Rachel’s ex-husband Tom’s(Justin Theroux) home and Anna(Rebecca Fergusson) who is the present wife of her ex-husband and mother of the much coveted baby she herself had once hoped to conceive- living in the homes besides the tracks. And then one of the two women, Megan, goes missing and Rachel happens to be the only witness who has seen the missing woman the last. It’s  also possible that she is hallucinating since the police believe she herself was seen in the area around the time the woman went missing and Rachel has these memory flashes that suggest she herself was involved in a violent struggle. Did Rachel have something to do with Megan’s disappearance or was it Megan’s jealous husband Scott?

The film tries hard to take you on that track and succeeds for a bit too but midway through the film you realize that there’s another obvious angle to it. The narration goes back and forth in time and also appears a tad confused about its point of view slipping between Rachel’s personalised experiences to a more neutral outside view. The repeated memory flashes make it obvious that there’s more to it than mere drunken stupor. The frequent shifts of focus in the narrative spiel may allow for some intrigue initially but eventually it’s just confusion that stays with you. It’s eventually up to Emily Blunt to keep the film from going totally off track. Her performance as the tortured, manipulated victim who might well be a scheming alcohol crazed lunatic is amongst the best we’ve seen this year. It’s a likely shoo-in for an Oscar nomination and redeems the filmed experience considerably!