# The Girl on the Train - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=88602[/img] 
*Title: The Girl on the Train* 

*Movie:* :2.5stars:
*Video:* :4.5stars:
*Audio:* :4stars:
*Extras:* :2.5stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*74



[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=88610[/img]*Summary*
Books and film are usually very hard to keep on the same level. You have characters, multiple plot lines, and numerous intricacies that are almost impossible to replicate in a 2-hour film with what took hundreds upon hundreds of pages to transcribe. It’s just the way of things. In that respect films usually play second fiddle to the novel, and “The Girl on the Train” is no different in that regards. Paula Hawkins novel of the same name is no literary work of genius, but it is a fairly entertaining novel that became an international best seller overnight. It had a good twist and some great characterization (if not a slightly clichéd ending according to my wife), but it had gotten notoriety for a reason. The movie, on the other hand, is merely a serviceable piece of fiction that is mired down by horribly hackneyed writing and overly confusing flashbacks that serve only to deflect the viewers suspicions from the only logical source of the villain. The person that the film spent the entire time flailing about in the dark trying to keep the attention of the viewer away from. As such it wasn’t as horrible and embarrassing a flick as some critics made it out to be, but “The Girl on the Train” is in no way a good movie either. 

Directed by Tate Taylor (“The Help”, James Brown biopic “Get on Up”), “The Girl on the Train” is a serviceable thriller that sticks rather close to the source material in terms of the basic maneuvers and motions of the plot. There is no wild deviations and changes to the source material in order to make something “new”, but the disjointed narrative and strange use of flashbacks keeps the film from really being anything more than a crude rendition of the novel (which already suffers from a rathe clichéd and predictable ending). There are some good performances by Emily Blunt and Rachel Ferguson, but otherwise the film just flounders around in the dark in order to keep the viewers’ attention long enough to distract them from the 800 lb gorilla in the room.

Rachel is an alcoholic wreck of a woman after her husband Tom (Justin Theroux) left her alcoholic butt and moved in with his mistress, Anna (Rachel Ferguson). Anna and Tom have moved on with their life and gotten married, but Rachel is still floundering around in her misery and despair. Her alcoholism ruined her marriage and she has slipped into a sort of psychotic mental state that has caused many a rift between herself and the people who at least care about, if not love, her. Anna and Tom’s life are suddenly thrown into chaos when their babysitter, Megan (Haley Bennett) is kidnapped with Rachel coming out of a drunken blackout with bruises and cuts on her and no memory of that night. The police are suspicious that Rachel has gone and done something serious in her stupor and the Megan’s husband Scott (Luke Evans) is left devastated with the knowledge that his wife is gone.

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=88618[/img]Trying to piece everything together, Rachel starts to follow the trail of clues back from her drunken night and put the puzzle back together again. It won’t be an easy task as the police think that she’s the most obvious suspect and Rachel doesn’t make it easy for anyone to trust her. She lies to Scott about being Megan’s friend in order to get information and continues to drink like a fish to douse her pain and suffering, which puts her even more in the spotlight. However, the mind is a powerful organ and little by little the clues start to come together. Bringing her one step closer to the truth, and one step closer to the danger that the truth personifies. 

While “The Girl on the Train” is not exactly high art, it is a technically decent film. However, it’s nothing more than just that. Decent. The movie uses obtuse flashbacks and constant misdirection to the extreme in order to prove that Rachel is, as the book states, an unreliable witness. She is most certainly unreliable, and she’s is also unreliable to us. We’re not exactly sure WHAT is truth and what is fiction as everything that flashes through Rachel’s mind slowly turns out to be misinformation and straight out fantasy. This becomes rather frustrating to the viewer when they cannot trust what is being shown on screen until the finale. Everything SEEEMS to be coming together multiple times, but then Taylor whips the rug out from underneath you and says “psych”! 

Emily Blunt and Rachel Ferguson are the saving grace here. Luke Evans and Justin Theroux do decent jobs with their role, as does Haley Bennett, but Emily is really the one to watch. She’s slightly miscast here, but she plays the fatigued and worn out drunk quite well. Giving one the illusion that she’s as unreliable and useless as the script makes her out to be. Ferguson acts the part of the worried wife and mother, but she is not given a whole lot to work with in order to stand out (the blonde wig was enough that she was almost unrecognizable, but her lack of accent really had me wondering if that was her at first). 





*Rating:* 

Rated R for violence, sexual content, language and nudity





*Video* :4.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=88626[/img]“The Girl on the Train” is a delight to the Blu-ray world. It is one of the few films that are still shot completely on ACTUALL film stock. Shot with 35mm film and then transferred to a 2K Digital Intermediary, it has a robust looking image that is just beautiful to the eyes. The picture is a bit desaturated and color graded with light blues, greys and a lovely honey color at times, but the clarity and sharpness of the image is not something to joke about. Fine detail in facial tones and the little creases and folds on clothing are immaculately maintained, and the foggy upper New York landscape shows off plenty of bleak, but accurate looking scenery to bask in. Blacks are solid, but do show some crush her and there, but otherwise are free of any major digital artifacting. Shadow detail is exemplary and skin tones have a very natural look to them despite the desaturated color usage. 







*Audio* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=88634[/img]“The Girl on the Train” sports a very nice sounding DTS:X object oriented track. A track that has all the earmarks of being a fantastic experience, but doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from a good 7.1 DTS-HD MA track. There is some use of overheads here and there, but most of the time this is really a glorified (but still really good) lossless audio mix that you would find on many a Blu-ray release. The movie is a very talky thing and much of the experience is in the front soundstage. Vocals, crunching of leaves under foot and the more robust encounters stay mainly in the front, but there are several moments where the surrounds get some fun playtime too. The music fills out the back end and low end with some nice activity, and the famous tunnel scene has a goodly number of directional queues that add to the mystery and terror of the situation. While it isn’t a WILDLY dynamic DTS:X track, “The Girl on the Train” has a nicely engaging and well nuanced mix that doesn’t disappoint. 






*Extras* :2.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=88642[/img]
• The Women Behind The Girl 
• On Board The Train
• Audio Commentary with Director Tate Taylor
• Deleted and Extended Scenes







*Overall:* :3.5stars:

I really wanted to like “The Girl on the Train”. It seemed like a sure-fire winner with Emily Blunt and Rachel Ferguson involved. Both are incredibly talented actors and the trailer seemed fascinating. Sadly, it ended up being an entirely too predictable thriller that spends most of its time waving its arms and shouting in order to distract you from the overly obvious conclusion that most people already came to in the first 20 minutes. There just isn’t a whole lot of substance to the twist. On the other hand, the acting is well done and there is enough technical nuts and bolts that are screwed on properly to have me begrudgingly admit that it isn’t a horrible film. Just one that barely skates by with the knowledge that it could have been so much more. The audio and video for the Blu-ray are quite fetching and the extras have a solid amount of meat to them to satisfy the collectors. If it were me, I’d personally keep “The Girl on the Train” as a low rental before committing to a purchase.



*Additional Information:*

Starring: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson
Directed by: Tate Taylor
Written by: Erin Cressida Wilson (Screenplay), Paula Hawkins (Novel)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS:X (DTS-HD MA 7.1 Core) DTS Headphone:X, Spanish, French DTS 5.1
Studio: Universal
Rated: R
Runtime: 112 Minutes 
Blu-ray Release Date: January 17th, 2017



*Buy The Girl on the Train On 4K Blu-ray at Amazon*
*Buy The Girl on the Train On Blu-ray at Amazon*




*Recommendation: Low Rental​*







More about Mike


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

With all the sub-par reviews that this has been getting, I decided to pass on this one. I may rent it or watch it for free later down the line, but even then I'm not so sure.

Rebecca Ferguson really won me over in the last Mission Impossible movie and Emily Blunt seemed like a surefire bet, but it seemed like everyone said the same things about the movie -- formulaic, mediocre, predictable.


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## asere (Dec 7, 2011)

I had high expectation for this film especially when I saw the trailer it looked good. I will rent this one but with a 2.5 rating not sure when I'll take the leap. 
Thank s for the review.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

it was sadly very lackluster


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## JimShaw (Apr 30, 2012)

Ordered it and paid $11.75.

It will be delivered today and I am hoping there will be some value in watching it: Possibly PQ, AQ, thrilling, something to make me not wish I had rented it.


.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

JimShaw said:


> Ordered it and paid $11.75.
> 
> It will be delivered today and I am hoping there will be some value in watching it: Possibly PQ, AQ, thrilling, something to make me not wish I had rented it.
> 
> ...


wow, that's a good price Jim. How did you get it that cheap?


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## JimShaw (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike Edwards said:


> wow, that's a good price Jim. How did you get it that cheap?


I have been buying my Blu-rays from an eBay seller for a long time, GreenwoodMovieandTan
His eBay score is 99.7 from 14,442 sales. 

He sells only Blu-ray combos with the DVD and HD Digital code taken out. I get the Blu-ray, case and art work. He sells them at $11.75 but there is a $3.25 shipping fee which brings the total cost to $15.00.
*
BUT* he allows bundling movies to save on postage. The first movie in a bundle to ship is $3.25. The second movie is $1.50 and adding any after that is 50 cents per movie when all bundled.

Yesterday, I ordered four Blu-rays
_Inferno, Hacksaw Ridge, Florence Foster Jenkins_ and_ Nocturnal Animals_. The total cost was $51.00 (Florence Foster was only $10.00). If I purchased from Best Buy, the price would have been $85.96.

I buy a lot from him. Even if I ordered only one, the cost would be $15.00 vs $21.49 at B.B.

Plus, he ships a few days before the movie hits the street and I generally get my order the same day they arrive at the stores.

.


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## JBrax (Oct 13, 2011)

We gave this a spin last night. Personally, I enjoyed it and maybe we're not that smart because we didn't have it figured out in the first 20 minutes. Very worthy of a rental IMO.


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## Lumen (May 17, 2014)

Thanks for helping the rest of us avoid expensive mistakes! It's reassuring to see less-than-favorable reviews along with the better ones - lends a certain confidence that the reviewers aren't "on the take."


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## David Ramsey (Feb 2, 2017)

Pretty good movie...picked up pace in the second half.


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