We’ve all been there. Out for a couple (gallons not pints) and woke up the following morning with a head like John Merrick stuck to a blood-splattered pillow, bruises on our arm suggesting an argument with the pavement and the pavement won, and our clothes strewn across the bedroom floor as if they had had been issued from our body like projectile vomit.

The only difference between Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt) and us however is that in the morning after her night before a woman by the name of Haley Bennett (Megan Hipwell) whom she saw on a daily basis as she commuted to work on a train (hence the title The Girl On The Train adapted from Paula Hawkin’s novel of the same name by Erin Cressida Wilson) went missing and is suspected murdered.

The same woman who used to live two doors up from her. The same woman who works as a nanny for her ex-husband Tom Watson (Justin Theroux) whose new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) has reported Rachel to the police on numerous occasions for stalking and attempting to abduct her newborn baby. All roads lead to Rome and for Rome read Rachel.

But even though she was spotted in the area on the night in question, and even though she was covered in blood from top to toe, and even though she doesn’t have an alibi and can’t account for her movements due to an alcohol-induced blackout which has blighted her life since unsuccessful IVF treatment rendered her childless, Rachel is determined to prove her innocence and pin the blame on someone else.

But who? Megan’s psychiatrist Dr. Kamal Abdic (Édgar Ramírez) who adopts a hands-on approach to counselling? Her brooding husband Scott Hipwell (Luke Evans) whose muscular physique looks like it’s been carved out of Mount Rushmore? Rachel’s former husband Tom who has a history of infidelity and stays two doors down? His new wife Anna who might have stumbled upon a clue to his carnal misdemeanours? Or Megan herself who enigmatically confessed prior to her disappearance that she is “a mistress of self-reinvention”?

Like a Rubik’s Cube, the puzzle grips the imagination and passes the time, but after a while the attention shifts and patience runs thin. Time moves back and forward more often and quicker than a Murray-Djokovic rally. The beginning is heavy on narration and light on action. And the three female narratives tie themselves in an impenetrable knot which quickly and unspectacularly unravels with quarter of an hour to spare.

But my biggest gripes are the excessive extreme close-ups of Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett and Rebecca Ferguson emoting tears. Sure, within each of their characters there resides a well of sadness and loneliness, and the trio turn in excellent performances, but director Tate Taylor (The Help, Get On Up) could surely have come up with more creative ways of expressing such emotions.

That said, The Girl On The Train is for the most part a gripping psychological thriller. The score by four-time Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman is both nerve-jangling and chilling. And the moody cinematography by Charlotte Bruus Christensen (Far From The Madding Crowd) matches the emptiness and confusion experienced by Blunt’s terrific performance as the alcoholic Rachel.

It’s just a pity that her line “I’m not the girl I used to be, I think people can see it in my face” was used by the director as the basis for much of his framing.

Video: Universal Pictures

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Peter Callaghan
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