Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Film review: The girl on the train (2016)





Synopsis:
Rachel Watson is alcoholic, her alcoholic issue is getting worst after her divorce with her husband, Tom Watson. Tom cheated with Anna Boyd, while still in marriage with Rachel. Tom and Anna has one daughter named Evie. Rachel likes to take train to Manhattan which chugging Beckett Road, she ever lived with Tom in their house at 13 Beckett Road. Every time she passed the Beckett Road, she likes to notice Megan Hipwell and Scott who lives in 15 Beckett Road. She becomes fascinated with their life and treat Megan as an important part of her life. Rachel thought Megan' life is the one that she always wanted to have, she thought Megan live in perfect life with devoted and loving husband, Scott.

One day, while commuting nearby the neighbourhood, she saw Meghan kissed Abdic, her psychiatrist. This infuriates Rachel, who thinks Meghan ruined her perfect marriage life. In her drunken state, she wants to confront Meghan. But, only find herself black out and awake hours later in her apartment. She later find out that Meghan is missing and presumed dead. Rachel was questioned by detective sergeant Riley who thinks Rachel that might be involved due to her weird behavior.
Rachel can not remember what happens on that Friday. Rachel go to meet Scott and pretend as Megan' friend and to tell him that Megan has affair with Abdic. Scott gets angry by this information but starts to try prying Rachel to get more detail information about his wife. Rachel feels that she finally has a purpose on her life, finding Megan. She begin to consult with Abdic, regarding her pas issue with Tom. In fact, she just wants to know about Megan whereabout by frequently meeting Abdic.

While in the bar, playing pool, she see one commuter and starts asking that commuter what happens to her on that Friday. She starts remembering she's been severely beaten at the tunnel and the commuter help her but she refused that commuter' help. She later Remember that she saw Rachel and Tom on that tunnel.

Anna Boyd is getting suspicious with Tom behaviour and she starts to pry Tom by login to Tom computer, but she always fail to login to Tom computer. She has no idea what the password is and in the process she find secret phone which is later she is verifying that phone belong to Megan.

Megan is found dead in the forest and forensic determine that Megan is pregnant but the baby is not belong to both Abdic and Scott. Scott later confront Rachel if she is conspiring against him. Rachel later runs to Martha while being in train. She apologize to Martha about her drunk behaviour that cause Tom to get fired. But Martha told her that Tom get fired because Tom' sexual relations to other colleagues. Rachel realize that Tom used abusive behaviour as his excuses to plant false memory into her.

Anna discover that Tom and Megan having an affair while she is working as nanny for her baby.
Rachel remembers that on that Friday, she went to confront Meghan. She saw Megan nearby the tunnel. While chasing and confronting Megan in the tunnel, she saw Megan with Tom. Tom later shout at her, mistaking her as Anna. Tom beat Rachel badly. Megan confess to Tom that she is pregnant with Tom' baby and Tom asked Megan to do abortion, which she refused. Tom murdered Megan because he doesn't want this affair to be exposed.

Rachel later told Anna about Tom' affair with Megan and asked Anna to leave, which Anna refused. Tom finds out Rachel told Anna about his affair and he starts to abuse Rachel. Rachel wants to escape from Tom, but Tom held her as hostage. When she has the chance to escape, Tom runs to catch her and Rachel killed Tom in the process. While investigated by detective Riley, Rachel told her that she killed Tom because of self defense and Anna states that Rachel had no choice and what she's done is for self defense, she said Rachel was right about everything.

Rachel later seen visiting Megan' grave. When she is commuting on the same train, she sit on opposite side of different car, looking ahead for different view and she thought anything is possible because she is not a girl she used to be.

My review:

There are big hype about the book and I haven't read the book and starting with the film. This film took me a while to process it, to understand what the story is all about. I am not psychology thriller fans, I drop many thriller movies because I can't stand the thrills or its story. But I just intrigued to know this film because all the hype about the book and while watching, the movie still bearable for me.

The girl on the train story is focused on the characters and the story line. The movie shows in 3 parts, Rachel POV (point of view), Megan POV and Anna POV as a short beginning and later shows what happens in different time interval, like 6 month, 1 month before.

I think Rachel is hard to let go her past, she is frustrated over her husband and later become alcoholic. She missed what she had with Tom Watson; Loving marriage. The ones that she thought Megan and Anna had. Tom cheated with Anna during her marriage with Tom and she starts to become frustrated by drinking alcohol. At Martha' party, she shows her frustration but Tom shows his abusive manner and said he get fired because Rachel drinking habit. This frustrates Rachel more. She bought a house with Tom and after divorce, Tom live in that house with Anna and their baby, Evie. Rachel feels hurt because she feels every stuff in that house is belong to her and Tom which hold a lot of memory between she and Tom and now Tom just live that same house with another woman and baby. Rachel feels jealous of what they have, she is really upset she can't have a baby with Tom.

Over her frustration, she saw Megan had affair with another man, not Scott. She always believe that Megan has perfect marriage life with Scott, the one that she always wanted in her life and just throw it away and having affair with another man. Rachel feels that she is worthless, she can't have any good life like Megan and Anna.

At fact, we always know the old saying that neighbourhood' grass always greener than what we have. Megan' life's not perfect. She is insomniac and she doesn't love her husband, she feels her husband is overprotective and controlling and abusive. She feels like a whore to her husband. Megan is later seduce her psychiatric and she has affair with Tom.

Anna' life is also isn't perfect either. She found out that Tom cheat with Megan, while Megan works as nanny for them, which is like karma for her because Tom cheat with Anna while in marriage with Rachel. Anna always feel Rachel is the trouble for their marriage and scared of Rachel' presence. This might what her heart feels inside, she feels guilty for Rachel to be third person over Rachel and Tom marriage.

What this story tells me is we have to be brave to face our past life. There are a lot of things we might not understand. But well, everything happens for a reason and we should believe that reasons is for our good in the future. Let's say, Rachel has family with Tom and have a baby together and she found out Tom is cheating with their nanny, like what Anna' condition. I think the condition is much worst for Rachel to be in that position, she could be worst alcoholic and her baby will be wasted. We better believe that we face the thing that we could bear it. Like Rachel, maybe its the best way for her inability to have baby with Tom and get divorce with Tom. We will never know what's the reality hold behind everything.

We all know that it is not easy bringing book story to film. The story line in the movie is pretty fast that I need to re-read wikipedia for more detail to understand the story of this film. I prefer they prolong the film to get more detail story. Emily Blunt is great actress, she makes Rachel' character alive. Its really worth to watch.


My rating: 7.5/10



Kind regards,


Selene.

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