Three different women lead different tough lives.

First, there is Rachel. She passes by houses on a train every day and envies those people’s lives. There is one in particular, which is a nice, white house. The name of the woman who lives at that place “changes” based on Rachel’s mood. But it’s unknown to her.

Then there is Megan. She juggles lots of responsibilities. She also lost her brother prior to the events of this movie. Her love interest wants her to be a babysitter so that she would want to have kids.

Finally, there is Anna. She is a jobless mother raising her only baby. After bathing her child, she meets Megan, who wants to babysit. Anna hesitates to hire her. 

Rachel won’t stop thinking about her ex-husband, Tom. She envies Anna for being married to him. It even goes far enough that she gets out of control about it at his boss’s barbeque.

At some point, she sees Megan kiss a stranger and that angers her. Not long after, though, does Rachel awaken on her own bed–only to discover that Megan is missing…

Despite the promising trailer, this movie did not please me like I hoped it would. For one thing, there is a lot of setting the story up. I understand why that is necessary, especially for 3 different major characters.

However, I wish there was a little more action and tension shortly after the beginning. One of the biggest flaws was how the characters were too quiet. This reduces the level of tension, even if there is conflict happening.

When any story starts, whether it’s written or visual, there needs to be a good level of tension. The characters should yell or show strong emotions, at least, a few times, or so. And how it gets depicted should depend on the genre and target audience, of course.

This movie is a thriller, so the tension levels should have been much higher–enough to make me worry what would happen next. But I would just react with, Okay, next…

The story is also hard to follow. One of the reasons is because the scenes switch too quickly. I understand that movies have to move along fast for various reasons. But I wanted to see more.

That being said, some scenes do share a lot about the characters. For example, when Megan is talking about her life, her husband sounds like he’s interviewing her. That actually engaged me and made me want to learn more about her.

But overall, The Girl on the Train was not my cup of tea. It actually did not do well to either critics or audiences.

I give this movie 2 out of 5 stars and really wouldn’t recommend it.