Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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NOVEMBER 9-15, 2016 UCW 23 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Poor Little Rich Girl The Girl on the Train (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS I was impressed by the novel Gone Girl in spite of myself, and then enjoyed the film and then started looking around for something similar. After seeing The Girl on the Train stay near the stop of the New York Times bestseller list for weeks and hearing it compared favorably to Gone Girl, I spent an evening working my way through it. And it was work. What started out sort of holding my attention became a torturous slog through a series of more and more improbable revelations to a finale so stupid it bordered on insulting. I liked Gone Girl. I liked it very much for its nasty characters and angry women and its hard-hearted mean little spirit. And, let me tell you, The Girl on the Train (112 minutes) was no Gone Girl. When I sat down to watch it I didn't even remember how much I disliked the book or how it ended — so add completely forgettable to its list of sins. I remembered that there was this babe who rode a train in England and she had a drinking problem and an estranged husband and she made terrible decisions. Also, there was some blonde chick and a second blonde chick, one who was a mess and one who was a bigger mess. Also, all the guys are immoral, unethical and/or untrustworthy. Those of you who wish to avoid spoilers should stop reading now, since I've already told you everything you need to know. Those of you who want to read a review full of spoilers and mean comments, please continue. Emily Blunt stars as Rachel, an alcoholic so deep in her alcoholism she has frequent blackouts. Her husband, Tom (Justin Theroux) whose smirking visage screams "I AM the Bad Guy!" tells her all the horrible things she does after she has blacked out, like smashing mirrors with golf clubs and throwing deviled eggs. At no point does she ever question his version of events or talk to anyone else about her actions. As it turns out, she has never done anything more inappropriate then get sleepy and take a nap, maybe after raising her voice slightly to mumble a swear or two. And you know what? I don't buy it for a second. I get that she would not remember things that happen after she blacks out, but this narrative hinges upon me believing that either her husband is never mean to her when she is sober, or that she is suffering the kind of short-term memory loss that makes her forget things two minutes after they happen. And either way, WHY in the name of movie logic, would she suddenly remember everything in the last fifteen minutes of the movie? Blunt manages to give the character some sort of life, but the entire thing is overly convoluted and filled with revelations that are more suited to a Lifetime movie. Haley Bennet, playing the missing girl Megan, continues to fail to impress me on any level. Rebecca Ferguson as Anna is the third woman, who is even less likable than the other two. See, Rachel was married to Tom, and then found out that Anna and Tom were having an affair. After Rachel divorced Tom, she became obsessed with Megan and her ideas about Megan's perfect life. After Megan possibly had an affair with her psychiatrist (Edgar Ramirez) and disappeared, Rachel pretended they were friends so she could connect with Megan's husband, Scott (Luke Evans). Scott is also abusive towards women. Thrown into this mix, Detective Riley (Allison Janney) plays an investigating officer who is completely over Rachel before she even speaks with her. In fact, it is hard to tell why the detective speaks to her at all, since she pretty much ignores everything Rachel tells her. The film limps towards it grand climax, which features Anna watching Tom strangle Rachel for a lo-o-o-ng time. How Tom thinks murdering his ex-wife in front of a witness is going to play out is thankfully left to our imagination, since it would probably involve Inception-levels of narrative convolution. Now showing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910 484-6200. $i. 50 Drink, Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Drink, Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Popcorn. Every Day All Day! $i. 50 Popcorn. Every Day All Day! $i. 50 Popcorn. Every Day All Day! $i. 50 Drinks. Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Drinks. Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Drinks. 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