The Girl on the Train

Last year my book club read the best selling juggernaut The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.  I thought it was an intense psychological thriller so I have been looking forward to the movie adaptation for quite a while.  I had the chance to see it last night and, rather unusually, I think it is better than the book!  Emily Blunt gives an incredible performance as Rachel Watson, an alcoholic whose husband has left her and has been fired from her job.  Every day she takes the same commuter train into the city and every day she sees the same couple out on their deck.  Because her life is in such a shambles, she idealizes them as the perfect couple.  One morning, she sees the woman with a man who is not her husband and feels betrayed by her infidelity.  After a night of drinking she gets off the train to confront the woman and wakes up the next morning bloody, bruised, and disheveled with no memory of what happened.  Rachel learns that the woman has gone missing and decides to inform her husband of what she has seen, but as she inserts herself into the investigation, she becomes a suspect herself.  As Rachel searches for the truth, she comes to realize that her perfect couple wasn't so perfect after all and that she is not as damaged as she was led to believe.  Blunt does the impossible by making Rachel seem sympathetic in a highly nuanced portrayal of a complex character with questionable judgement.  There is a particular scene where she confronts everyone who has betrayed her in a mirror that is absolutely brilliant.  Even though she does some despicable things, you understand what has driven her to this point:  Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), married to her ex-husband, has the life that she once had and Megan (Haley Bennett), the perfect woman seen from the train, has the life she wants but is throwing it away.  For me, this movie is less about the murder mystery and more about the journey Rachel takes (maybe because I've read the book and knew the outcome?) and I enjoyed the psychological tension.  There are differences from the book, most notably that it is set in New York City instead of London and there is an addition of a new character (Lisa Kudrow) to advance the plot, but I found the movie to be much more cohesive than the book.  I highly recommend it.