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| Justin Theroux and Emily Blunt |
Given that the book on which this film is based was
in the best-seller charts this time last year there is a definite take the
money and run feel to the film version. In narrative terms it is full of plot
holes, in emotional terms it’s as deep as a puddle; in script terms it could do
with a rewrite or two. In short, it feels rushed, like a film cashing in on a
hot book.
Full disclosure. I didn’t care for the book. I
thought it was one-dimensional and none of the characters was clearly defined
to the point where I frequently couldn’t tell which was which. They are not
individuated and they all have the same voice.
Most of these faults, plus a few more, are carried
into the film which is essentially the story of three women; Rachel (Emily
Blunt), Megan (Haley Bennet), and Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). Without being too
specific their lives are interlinked and Rachel provides the narrative thread
as she observes the other two from her commuter train.
One morning Rachel seems something troubling from
her carriage. Later we discover one of the other women is missing and Rachel
may hold the key to the mystery. Rachel however is an alcoholic and spends her
days in a daze as it were, so she is not regarded as reliable.
The story moves as though it were on rails itself.
There is no depth, no characterisation, in fact not much of any interest until
the mystery is solved. It is a by the numbers thriller with plot points and
action beats ticked off with joyless regularity and everyone behaving as they
do simply because that’s how characters in movies like this behave.
I felt especially sorry for Emily Blunt, a fine
actor who gets to exhibit a series of characteristics without ever getting
close to playing a character. She is little more than a walking exposition dump
as her voice over tells us what’s going on and how everyone is feeling.
It’s just a thought but maybe now and then
director Tate Taylor might have shown us instead of just telling us. This is
lazy story telling.
There is no reason to empathise with Rachel apart
from common human decency about the fact that bad things keep happening to her.
In spite of this she carries on doing illogical things because if she – or anyone
else – exhibited a fraction of common sense the film would fall apart. The same
can be said of Bennet and Ferguson, they are cyphers not characters. There is no
sense of internal life, just mechanical plot points.
The mechanistic nature of the film extends to
Taylor’s direction which gives this the feel of a TV movie and, sadly, the
cinematography of Charlotte Bruus Christensen. The film seems static and
lifeless and when you compare this to her work on The Hunt (2012) or Far from
the Madding Crowd (2015) it’s a major disappointment.
One final thought as my mind wandered during this
film. It’s a film aimed at women, based on a best-seller written by a woman
which was bought by hundreds of thousands of women, and it has been adapted by
a women. Why then did I feel that there was a rather nasty judgemental tone to
the whole proceedings?
If we consider the three characters here, one is
an infertile drunk, another has lost a child and wants no more, while the third
stole another woman’s man; they do not conform to generic wife and mother
stereotypes. I couldn’t help feeling that the film exists only to judge these
women and then punish them for their choices. That, to me, doesn’t seem terribly
empowering in this day and age.
