For whatever reason, I am on an Emily Blunt kick! 😛 This one was a massive, massive bestselling book in the spirit of Gone Girl…although this one as a film is a bit muddier of a translation, and bit weaker of a watch.
THE BLURB:
Commuter Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt) catches daily glimpses of a seemingly perfect couple, Scott and Megan, from the window of her train. One day, Watson witnesses something shocking unfold in the backyard of the strangers’ home. Rachel tells the authorities what she thinks she saw after learning that Megan is now missing and feared dead. Unable to trust her own memory, the troubled woman begins her own investigation, while police suspect that Rachel may have crossed a dangerous line.
WHAT WORKED:
Emily Blunt is great, as always. I’m a fan. Have been ever since she played the pathologically lying, hypersexualized, manipulative Tamsin in My Summer of Love. I can also see why she was interested in playing Rachel in this film: an alcoholic with blackout memory problems…who might have killed someone. The acting overall, in fact, is pretty strong.
The locations are great. The mystery at the center of the drama is fun enough. The final reveal is also rather interesting, particularly in terms of the conversation we’re having right now about women, their inequality, and sexual abuse. But…
WHAT DIDN’T WORK:
It all ends up being a bit pedestrian and muddled. There’s not a lot of narrative drive, and Rachel seems to be able to get away with A LOT of what in the real world, or at least in the world of law enforcement we’ve come to expect from our screen entertainment, that should get her arrested and removed from the whole plot.
The conclusion also, while relevant in very strong ways to the conversation we’re having in our country about women and how men/society treat them…also manages to undercut the main character to a large degree and make them an entirely passive character in terms of the narrative. As in, not an ACTIVE participant in her own plot. And that’s a bit frustrating. It’s redeemed somewhat by what happens AFTER the big reveal, the result of the final climax…but the reveal itself, which is supposed to be the earth-shattering moment of the narrative, falls rather flat.
In the end, it’s really a fine movie. It’s not particularly good, and it’s not particularly bad. It got far more attention than it probably deserved because the book was so recently a huge bestseller…but really, it’s a take-it-or-leave it movie. I watched it from beginning to end, and was mildly entertained…but it was a bit of a snoozer.
5 out of 10 – watch it for free on cable, or just skip it