The Girl on the Train (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

“The Girl on the Train” Delivers a Taut Psychological Thriller

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

I used to commute to work on Metro-North. As the train rumbled through the countryside I would gaze out the window at the perfect little houses inhabited by perfect little families, from time to time catching glimpses of their lives through unshaded windows. From time to time, I would image who these people might be, what they did for a living, whether they were happy or not, how did they spend their day?

Sometimes I’d see something, movements, almost from the corner of my eye, like a snapshot that’s unfocused. Was it an act of violence, a domestic disturbance? No, these were happy people I told myself.

Yet I recalled that 1945 film “Lady on a Train” in which Deanna Durbin is a commuter who witnesses a murder from her train window. Could it be …? Naw.

Nevertheless, novelist Paula Hawkins imagined something like this in her eleven-million-copy bestseller “The Girl on the Train.”

And director Tate Taylor (“The Help”) has brought it to the screen. You can catch “The Girl on the Train” this week at Tropic Cinema.

It tells the story of Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt), a divorcee who is having a bad time. Although she’s lost her job, she still takes the train as if going to work in order to keep up appearances.

The train passes by her old house, where her ex (Justin Theroux) lives with his new wife and child. A few houses away, she spots a happy couple (Haley Bennett and Luke Evans) that she fanaticizes about. Then one trip, she spots the woman struggling with a man. Is she being abducted?

Drinking too much following her divorce, Rachel suffers from blackouts and can’t trust her own senses. But when she hears the woman has gone missing, she knows she has to come forward with her story.

But there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Could Rachel be responsible for the woman’s disappearance?

This psychological thriller has been described as the next “Gone Girl.”

I’m glad I don’t ride a train anymore. There’s too much temptation to insert yourself in other people’s lives. As “The Girl on the Train” shows us, that can be dangerous.

srhoades@aol.com