The Girl on the Train (2016 film)


The Girl on the Train is a 2016 American mystery thriller drama film directed by Tate Taylor and written by Erin Cressida Wilson, based on British author Paula Hawkins' popular 2015 debut novel of the same name. The film stars Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Allison Janney, Édgar Ramírez, and Lisa Kudrow. The film follows an alcoholic divorcée named Rachel who becomes involved in a missing person's investigation.
Principal photography began on November 4, 2015, in New York City. Produced by Marc Platt and DreamWorks Pictures, The Girl on the Train was the first film to be distributed by Universal Pictures as part of DreamWorks' new distribution deal via the company Amblin Partners.
The film premiered in London on September 20, 2016, before it was theatrically released in the United States on October 7, 2016. The film was a box office success, grossing worldwide, but received mixed reviews. Blunt's performance received praise and gained a nomination at the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles, as well as a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 70th British Academy Film Awards.

Plot

. Rachel Watson is an on-off recovering alcoholic who aimlessly rides a train since losing her job and her marriage. From the train, she fixates on the lives of her former husband Tom Watson, his current wife Anna, and their neighbors Scott and Megan Hipwell, whom she idolizes. Megan worked for Tom and Anna as a nanny, but recently quit. During her marriage, Rachel became depressed about her infertility and developed a drinking problem resulting in continual blackouts and destructive behavior. At a barbecue held by Tom's boss, she drunkenly made a scene and was blamed by Tom when he was fired. While drunk, she often harasses Tom, calling him multiple times, though she has little or no memory of this once she sobers up. She also took Tom and Anna's newborn-daughter, Evie, from her crib while Anna was sleeping, then left the child on the ground when Anna discovered her.
From the train, Rachel becomes infuriated when she spots Megan kissing a stranger. She goes to confront Megan, but hours later wakes up in her bed, covered in blood. Megan has disappeared, and Rachel is questioned by Detective Riley because she was seen in the vicinity that day. Rachel contacts Scott, pretending to be Megan's friend, to tell him about the affair. Scott pulls up a picture of Megan's psychiatrist Dr. Kamal Abdic, and Rachel identifies him as the man she saw kissing Megan.
As a result, Abdic is questioned as a suspect but tells the police that Scott was emotionally abusive towards his wife, and suspicion shifts to him. Believing Abdic is involved in Megan's disappearance, Rachel schedules an appointment with him, but she ends up discussing her own emotional issues. Abdic recalls a session with Megan in which she told him she had a baby when she was very young. The baby accidentally drowned in the bathtub and Megan never forgave herself for it.
Megan is found murdered and tests show she was pregnant, but that neither Scott nor Abdic was the father. Scott enters Rachel's house and aggressively confronts her for lying to him about knowing Megan, directing the police towards Abdic, and leaving him as the new suspect. Rachel tries to report the assault to the police, believing Scott's violence suggests he may have murdered Megan, but the detective says that he has been ruled out as a suspect as there is CCTV footage of him at a bar at the time.
On the train Rachel sees Martha, the wife of Tom's former boss, and apologizes for her behavior at the barbecue where she believes she broke a platter, threw eggs, and insulted Martha. Martha says she did nothing wrong and she was told that Rachel was sick and needed to sleep in their spare room. It turns out Tom had been fired for having sex with co-workers. Rachel realizes that Tom planted false memories in her head during her drinking binges. He was also violent toward her during her blackouts, which accounts for the injuries she had when she awoke.
Anna suspects Tom of cheating and secretly finds a strange cell phone hidden in their house; the voicemail revealing that the phone belongs to Megan. A sober Rachel goes back to the tunnel, and remembers that on the day of her disappearance she caught Megan meeting Tom, who beat her when she tried to confront the two. Realizing that Tom killed Megan when she refused to abort his baby, Rachel warns Anna, who already knows. When Tom arrives home, both women confront him about his affair with Megan. Tom tries to force Rachel to drink alcohol again, throws the drink at her face, and knocks her unconscious.
When Rachel awakens, she flees for the front door, but it is locked. Tom tries to strangle her as Anna watches from the top of the stairs. Rachel doubles back through the kitchen and grabs a corkscrew. She gets outside, but Tom chases her and grabs her. As she turns, she stabs him in the neck with the corkscrew. He falls; as Anna reaches him, she twists it deeper into Tom's neck, killing him.
Interviewed by Detective Riley, Rachel and Anna tell identical stories about killing Tom in self-defense after he admitted that he was Megan's killer; with Anna admitting that Rachel had been right about everything. Later, Rachel visits Megan's tombstone at a cemetery and states "We are tied forever now, the three of us, bound forever by the story we shared." Later, she sits on the opposite side of the train, hopeful for a new life.

Cast

Development

acquired the film rights to Hawkins' novel and the film was planned for production by Marc E. Platt in March 2014. In early 2015, Erin Cressida Wilson was hired to write the script and Tate Taylor was hired to direct the film. Hawkins told The Sunday Times that the film's setting would be moved from London to Westchester, New York.

Casting

In June 2015, Emily Blunt was offered the title role, the lonely and alcoholic divorcee Rachel. The studio had eyed Kate Mara for another of the three lead roles. In August, Rebecca Ferguson was confirmed to play Anna and Haley Bennett was added to the cast to play the third female lead role, Megan.
Jared Leto and Chris Evans were in talks to join the film, where Evans would play Tom, Rachel's ex-husband, and Leto would play the neighbor's husband. However, Justin Theroux replaced Evans and Luke Evans replaced Leto, who both left the film due to scheduling issues. In October, Édgar Ramírez joined the film to play Dr. Kamal Abdic, who is having an affair with the married Megan, and becomes a suspect in her disappearance. Allison Janney also joined the cast to play a police detective. The next month, Lisa Kudrow was cast as Martha, the wife of Tom's former boss. Laura Prepon joined the cast as Cathy, the landlord, roommate, and college friend of Rachel Watson.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on November 4, 2015, in New York City. In late November 2015, filming also took place in White Plains, as well as in Hastings-on-Hudson and Irvington, New York. Filming wrapped up on January 30, 2016.

Post-production

During post-production on the film, a cameo appearance by Paula Hawkins was cut from the film.

Release

In November 2015, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures scheduled the film for an October 7, 2016, release through their Touchstone Pictures banner.
The film was part of DreamWorks' distribution deal with Walt Disney Studios, which began in 2009. However, DreamWorks and Disney did not renew their distribution deal, and in December 2015, Universal Pictures acquired the film's distribution rights, as part of their new distribution deal with DreamWorks' parent company, Amblin Partners.
Universal retained Disney's original release date. Universal also distributed overseas, except in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where distribution was handled by Mister Smith Entertainment through other distributors. Entertainment One released the film in the United Kingdom on October 5, 2016.

Reception

Box office

The Girl on the Train grossed $75.4 million in the United States and Canada and $97.8 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $173.2 million, against a production budget of $45 million.
In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross around $25–30 million in its opening weekend, with some having it opening to as low as $18 million. The film was expected to play like the similarly themed Gone Girl, which opened to $37.5 million in October 2014, although that film had more star power to carry it. It went on to gross $24.5 million in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office. In its second weekend it grossed $12 million, finishing third at the box office.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 44% based on 304 reviews, with an average rating of 5.29/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Emily Blunt's outstanding performance isn't enough to keep The Girl on the Train from sliding sluggishly into exploitative melodrama." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.
IGN critic Terri Schwartz gave the film a score of 5.5/10, writing: "The Girl on the Train has a talented cast, but ultimately squanders it for the sake of a hollow, ponderous plot. Alternately overly convoluted and predictable, the film relies too heavily on its twists while offering little in the way of character development, leaving its three central women as unrelatable and unlikable stereotypes." Rolling Stones Peter Travers gave the film a positive review, commenting that: "he movie gives away the game faster than the novel, but Emily Blunt digs so deep into the role of a blackout drunk and maybe murderer that she raises Girl to the level of spellbinder."
Chicago Sun-Times' Richard Roeper gave 2 stars out 4, and said that the film is "shiny trash that begins with promise but quickly gets tripped up by its own screenplay and grows increasingly ludicrous and melodramatic, to the point where I was barely able to suppress a chuckle at some of the final scenes". Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com gave 1½ stars out of 4, and described the film as, "a flat and suspense-free tale of pretty people in peril".

Accolades

Remake