Directed: Tate Taylor
Written: Erin Cressida Wilson. Based on The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Released: October 2016
Starring: Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Haley Bennett, Luke Evans, Allison Janney (Juno’s mum!), Édgar Ramírez and Lisa Kudrow.
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The Girl on the Train is up there with Gone Girl! A mind-twisting psychological thriller, through the eyes of Rachel (Emily Blunt) – a frail alcoholic who is the last person to see Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett) alive.
However, as we see the events unfold from Rachel’s point of view, you never know what is real and what has been imagined, as she struggles to remember what she saw .
Is she the murderer? Was it the ginger dude on the train? Was it Megan’s husband? You honestly wouldn’t know for sure – massive twists!
We experience the battle against herself as she grows stronger and more focussed on trying to remember what she saw that night when Megan went missing.
I have read the book, and if I had of seen the movie immediately after I think I would have agreed with the public’s negative reaction of it being too different to the novel. As instead of it being set in the dingy outer suburbs of London, it is set in glamourous waterside mansions of New York.
Apparently the movie was always going to be set somewhere in the USA, because alcoholism is ‘less accepted there‘, and the juxtaposition of the character’s sadness with the glorious mansions she passed on the train made it visually shocking… I still don’t think it was necessary to change the country’s setting, but whatever. At least Emily Blunt was allowed to remain English.
I enjoyed it very much, though. The characters are believable and relatable (my two big ticks for every movie). Emily Blunt makes an amazing drunk person – that must have taken a lot of practice to look that authentic. It’s actually scary and makes you think twice about drinking.
I’m pleased they didn’t make her look flawless while she was drunk. I was worried they would make her look too ‘pretty’, but her cheeks are puffy and red, her eye make-up is smudged and her hair is messy – you wouldn’t know she’s a celebrity.
But if I had to be nit-picky, the male characters all looked far too similar. I guess this was to encourage you to see through the hazy eyes of a drunkard who couldn’t identify anyone. But with the film being visually dark, everyone having short, dark hair could get confusing if you didn’t know the storyline.
Or maybe it’s just our crappy TV that makes the contrast too deep.
Nevertheless, if you haven’t read the book you’ll likely enjoy it more, because you wouldn’t be able to notice the differences from the novel. But you may find it a bit slow-paced and long-winded at times.
Would recommend!
Jodie’s rating: 8/10
PS. On more than one occasion, I have been told that if I didn’t have crooked teeth, chubby cheeks or many of my current facial features, that I would look JUST like Emily! 🤪🤪 *so proud*.
I was expecting a super dramatic biopic, but as compelling as the storyline absolutely is, it is intertwined with down-to-Earth humour. (Pun intended.)
The three main characters are Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji Penda Henson, 
The Dressmaker is about a woman returning home from Europe to the rural Australian village she grew up in. She endeavors to discover the secrets of her childhood.
But then again, I’m not a fan of dark humour. Especially when the DVD cover in no way hints at the horror that unfolds. Good grief.
Thankfully I was pre-warned about the opening scene, so the overly theatrical and colourful intro did not startle me. But I think everyone must be warned – it only gets better from here.
The jazz influence is AH-MAY-ZING. The writer and director is Damien Chazelle who wrote and directed 
I am aware it was based in New York. But it was too clean, too cheesey, theatrical and lame.
I thought some of the characters had jumped out of an old Doctor Who episode. (You’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen the David Tennant Doctor Who episode ‘Daleks in Manhattan’.)
After the first five-minutes of becoming reacquainted with the cocky and cringe-worthy character of David Brent, the repetitive jokes were drilled in over and over. This comedy became boring quite rapidly.
I did enjoy some of the lyrics in his songs. A previously unexploited skill of Ricky Gervais’, with a taster of his lyrics shown in the 
haring a small cinema with about 50 people – some of them peculiar, some of them creepy, and only a couple of them under the age of 13 – we unabashedly cracked open a couple of ciders and the movie began. And I was pleasantly surprised.
But my boyfriend’s favourite character was Bailey (Ty Burrell (aka dad in Modern Family)) the beluga whale due to the humour of watching him figure out how to be a whale, as well as the sounds he made.
For those of you non-comic-book people out there, basically Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is a sarcastic, normal dude who has got mutated in some creepy underground experimentation lab.
This is mostly due to the film blatantly making fun of itself, breaking fourth walls frequently, and generally not taking itself seriously at all. It is essentially a mock-hero film. Like the film Vampires Suck – a spoof of 
It’s about young Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) who is having a tough time growing up in Ireland, with not much in the way of a job, opportunities or a meaningful future.
This is where she meets a charming Irishman (Domhnall Gleeson), and must choose between the life she has always hoped for in Ireland with her family, and the life she has made for herself back in Brooklyn.
A heart-wrenching, relatable and deeply emotional story. I loved it. I laughed, I sobbed (wait for the part where the homeless man sings – I got chills), I was totally engaged from beginning to end.
I’ve heard the book is fantastic – I’m going to read it this summer. But, the movie is exquisite. If you haven’t seen or read The Time Traveler’s Wife, the low-down is that a man is a time traveller and his wife is not. The time traveller, named Henry (Eric Bana) can’t control his travelling, so his impromptu disappearances and reappearances become a way of life for his wife Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams).
Watching it in the cinema, I was clutching my handbag and holding my breath… Any second now, the mild-tempered Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) is going to flip her sh*t. But she didn’t. She remains meek throughout the entire film. She just cries more and more as the story goes on.
And, no make-up! Like, usually there’s the ‘no make-up, make-up’ look. But it actually looks like the Hollywood actresses are bare-faced. Kudos.
James McAvoy (we named our pet goat ‘Mr. Tumnus’ after McAvoy’s performance as this character in Narnia),
Arthur Christmas was as magical as the 
After watching this exciting adventure, you too will feel secure in the existence of Santa, as many of these questions are thoroughly answered with imaginative and quirky explanations.
Oh! And you needn’t be put off by the presence of a Justin Bieber tune – despite the hype all over the DVD cover, I didn’t even notice the song.
Director: Rob Reiner
Cruise’s character is over-confident, and he asks super awesome questions to people ranked way above him. But he has to be careful when he begins questioning Jack Nicholson’s character, because if he can’t get him to admit that he knew about the Code Red, then Tom Cruise’s character will be down the pan for accusing a Colonel… Basically.
Oh! And, Captain Jack Ross (Kevin Bacon) – not to be confused with popular Disney pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow – is the lawyer person on the other side, trying to get Dawson and Downey out of the Marines for supposedly murdering Santiago.
Director: Ben Affleck
In the first robbery of the film, a masked Doug (Ben Affleck) is calming Claire (Rebecca Hall) who is franticly opening the safe, while the rest of the robbers intimidate the hostages.
I like movies where you’re on the side of the ‘badies’. Kind of like in 
Director: Tim Burton
Nevertheless! This was not a totally predictable Burton tale because it was based on real people and events.
Over 10 years, that lie snowballed into something much larger, where Margaret was lying to her daughter, lying to herself and losing her identity in a dominated relationship.
There were some great scenes, like when everyone’s eyes were like dinner plates in the supermarket. I was mesmerised by how believable Amy Adams is! She is an incredible actress for sure. I could completely understand how blinded she was in her marriage, just by her nervous gestures and mannerisms.
Each are relatable and lovable, each with pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses. No mood is less important than the other, or more favourable than the other. Which is a moral within itself.
Director: Damien Chazelle
I’m sure you’ve heard of Whiplash, and referred to it as ‘that drumming film with 
It was like a way more intense and less-uplifting version of Peaceful Warrior. (A movie about a gymnast mentally and physically pushed to the limit.)
I think the only thing holding this move back was its simplicity… Or maybe that aided it… I’m not too sure, but I wonder if Whiplash could have become as disturbing as Black Swan with some more scenes expressing Neiman’s inner emotions..?
Director: Gareth Edwards
However, this was more like a monster sci-fi movie. Giving a nod to Jurassic Park, Space Odyssey (music), 
Yes, you may have noticed I’m using a plural: monsters. IT’S SO AWESOME!
I have referenced this unofficial genre in many film reviews of late, so I thought I should dedicate a post to it. Especially since it doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.
Director: Peter Chelsom
Basically, Hector is a psychiatrist and he finds himself unfulfilled. So he goes on a journey around the world, visiting countries including China and Africa, to find out what makes people happy.
Anyway. I was disappointed because I love 
Directors: Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin
Pike plays the mum, Abi, Tennant as the dad, Doug, and Billy Connolly as the granddad, Gordie.
Nevertheless, the script was amazing. Some fantastic one-liners! For example, the youngest child has a brick and a rock as friends:
Director: Sean Penn
It’s certainly a sad story, and it bursts your idealistic bubble of living in the wilderness. As it turns out, being in the wild is a brutal place to be. Especially all alone.
A classic ‘
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
To be frank, the flashbacks made me feel really uncomfortable. But… I guess the world of heroin addicts shouldn’t exactly be attractive.
In fact, if you enjoyed 
I’d like to point out that the screenplay was written by Nick Hornby, who wrote 
It gets dark very quickly by this point as they outline the characters’ backstories, and how it came to this.
NZ Film Freak 