Girl on the Train revolves around a girl, Emily Blount, and a train she takes back and forth to NYC each day. This girl has a problem - she's an alcoholic. She also has an obsession with her past life, her ex, who went on to re-build his life after his relationship with Blount failed.
The movies focuses on 4 people: ex-husband, his new wife Amy, his ex wife Rachel (blount), and neighbor Megan. Various other characters work their way into key parts of the story too. Rachel is never sure of what is real vs what is not because her drinking led her to various blackouts. Flashbacks give you glimpses, but again, what's real vs not?
The Director did a masterful job of building as much intrigue and second guessing as possible. But if you are paying attention, you start having a pretty good idea of what is going on after a certain point. Then it's just a race to the inevitable conclusion.
The movie is not confusing as I've read in some comments. You are being given different theories about what is going on, and it's up to you to dig thru it all, which makes this a decent psycho thriller. Throw in a psychologist to mix things up and you start wondering even more.
The movie succeeds because Blount is absolutely outstanding as Rachel. What a terrific acting performance by her - You feel all her emotions and wonder throughout what really happened, till things clear up a bit.
There is some nice cinematography of the Hudson river. I loved the way the Director used the train to create snapshots of lives. It really mimics our own lives as we see bits and pieces of others, and wonder what they are doing.
Very satisfying movie. Buy a ticket for the Girl on the Train, and enjoy.
