***1/2
The Girl On The Train is an effective, well-constructed and tightly wound adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ 2015 best-seller (which did not, contrary to the poster copy, “shock the world”, but which did give readers a juicy little post-Gone Girl misty mystery to read on, well, the train).
Emily Blunt stars as an alcoholic divorcee who has a very bad blackout, the forgotten details of which may hold the key to a crime. Everything else deserves to be withheld, as this is a mystery through and through, and the less you know, the better.
Pity the trailer doesn’t adhere to the same restraint.
With only nine speaking parts (by my count), lots of atmospheric Upstate New York fog and excellent performances from Blunt and Rebecca Ferguson, specificity and containment are the keys here. Director Tate Taylor (The Help) deftly juggles the book’s relatively complex structure.
Worth seeing – just avoid the trailer.