A WOMAN'S BRIDGE

The Girl on the Train

2/28/2017

 
Picture
The Girl on the Train begins with an element of control. "My husband used to tell me I have an overactive imagination," says a blue eyed woman who marks an X on the condensation of a train window. It is a blanket statement in that it is something one would say to a small child who has too many imaginary friends. Her name is Rachel and she thinks " I can't help it. Haven't you ever been on a train and wondered about the lives of the people who live near the tracks?" 

Rachel seems contemplative. And if one has not read about the film before viewing it, the viewer will find that soon enough, a natural and artful curiosity about human nature has somewhere along the way turned into an obsession. 

She says, "I'm not the girl, I used to be." This is not the statement of an independent businesswoman, despite her suit-jacket. It's the mindset of a girl, lost, isolated and confused. 

Rachel's favorite house is number 15 Beckett Road. In the young blond woman who lives there, Rachel sees the life she lost. The woman stands in a bathrobe and slippers on the balcony. Other times she is curled up next to her husband as they sit in front of a campfire. 

Rachel sits in a bar and draws the couple on her sketchpad as she has a martini. And in a house two doors down from 15 Becket Road is a woman happily holding a baby. This is Rachel's old home, that she had with her husband, Tom. 

One does start to wonder what she does all day. A woman with a baby boy sits next to her on the train and as Rachel coos at the child the woman sees a bottle of hard liquor in Rachel's bag. The stranger looks angry and uncomfortable for it.

It becomes increasingly apparent that Rachel is drinking phenomenal amounts, particularly of hard liquor. Her voice has the constant slur of someone who always has alcohol in their system. She drinks at bars and from a water bottle. Whether in public or private she usually drinks alone. 

Megan is the woman who lives at number 15. She is a bit of a lost soul herself as she does not fit into the yoga crowd, and her marriage is already crumbling. Megan speaks of the various phases of her modern life, She has been a rebellious teenager, lover, gallery director, nanny and whore though not all in that order. She wants to start her entire life over again and does not seem to appreciate nor be particularly happy with anything she has. Rachel's version of "Megan" is far more romantic. 

There's a sense of modern American isolation to the entire film. There's no extended family looking out for the women, nor does anyone seem to know their neighbors in a friendly way. Megan's best friend is her shrink. 

Megan's husband, Scott wants a baby. And she says to her therapist that he thinks her current nanny job will make her want to get pregnant. Help her to settle down. But Megan wants nothing to do with babies. She has the job for other reasons. 

When Megan disappears, Rachel begins on a quest to understand what happened the last night Megan was seen. She can't remember exactly and the blackouts leave her with fragmented and confused memories. She does know she saw someone who looked like Megan in a tunnel. But when she wakes up with her articles and hair covered in blood she has no idea what occurred.

When detectives get involved it is brought to the attention of Rachel's roommate that she doesn't have a job and hasn't for the past year. She takes the train to New York and back every day. Her roommate is suspicious that Rachel did not kill Megan and gives her a few weeks notice. 

The memories filter back and forth and it is a kaleidoscope of who is the abuser and who is the abused. Eventually it is found who did kill Megan. It culminates in a fight fire with fire means to an end. And Rachel begins a new life. 

​By Sarah Bahl

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010

    Categories

    All
    70s
    80s
    90s
    Adoption
    Africa
    Age Of Innocence
    Agnes Grey
    Alice Walker
    All American Girls Baseball League
    American South
    Amit Peled
    Ancient Egyptian Fashion
    Angela Lansbury
    Anna Sewell
    Anne Bronte
    Annie Hall
    Art
    Asia
    Audrey Hepburn
    Australia
    Ballet
    Baseball
    Basketball
    Bastard Out Of Carolina
    Beauty
    Beauty From Omo Valley
    Bell Jar
    Black Beauty
    Black History Month
    Blue Jasmine
    Born Into Brothels
    Brand New Life
    Bronte Sisters
    Canada
    Cancer
    Cate Blanchett
    Catherine Deneuve
    Catherine Frot
    Catherine Mcgraw
    Catherine The Great
    Cats
    Center For American Progress
    Charlotte Bronte
    Cheongsam
    Child Marriage
    China
    Christmas
    Cinderella
    Civil Rights Movement
    Civil War
    Classics
    Cleopatra
    Coco Before Chanel
    Coco Chanel
    Communism
    Dangerous Liaisons
    DC Film Festival
    Dennis McGraw
    Dian Fossey
    Domestic Violence
    Doris Lessing
    Dorothy Allison
    Edith Head
    Edith Wharton
    Edwardian Era
    Egypt
    Elizabeth Taylor
    Emily Blunt
    Emma Thompson
    England
    Europe
    Execution
    Fanny Price
    Farewell My Queen
    Fashion
    Film
    Flamenco
    Food
    France
    Fried Green Tomatoes
    Geisha
    Genji
    Gibson Girl
    Giselle
    Global North
    Global South
    Gone With The Wind
    Gorillas In The Mist
    Grace Kelly
    Great Depression
    Halloween Costume
    Hans Silvester
    Harriet Beecher Stowe
    Heian
    Help
    Her Name Is Sabrine
    History
    Hitchcock
    Hong Kong
    Horses
    Iberian Suite
    India
    In The Mood For Love
    Ireland
    Islam
    Jane Austin
    Jane Eyre
    Japan
    Jean Craighead George
    Josephine Baker
    Julia Alvarez
    Julie Of The Wolves
    Jung Chang
    Kar Wai Wong
    Kathryn Stockett
    Kennedy Center
    Lady Audley's Secret
    League Of Their Own
    Lesbian
    Liberia
    Lion In Winter
    Little Women
    Long Walk Home
    Lost German Slave Girl
    Louisa May Alcott
    Lucy Kemp Welch
    Madeleine Albright
    Magdalene Laundry
    Magdalene Sisters
    Maggie Cheung
    Mansfield Park
    Margaret Mitchell
    Margarita
    Maria Rasputin
    Marie Antoinette
    Marie Arana
    Mariinsky Ballet
    Marilyn Mccully
    Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
    Marta Casals Istomin
    Mary Mcgraw
    Memoirs Of A Geisha
    Mental Illness
    Middle East
    Mineko Iwasaki
    Movie
    Mozart's Sister
    Mursi Tribe
    My Big Fat Greek Wedding
    My Fair Lady
    Nancy Price
    Napoleonic Era
    National Velvet
    N.C. Wyeth
    Nia Vardolos
    Odette Toulemonde
    Ounie Lecomte
    Pablo Picasso
    Particularly Cats And Rufus
    Patricia Highsmith
    Persepolis
    Persuasion
    Photography
    P.L. Travers
    Politics
    Potiche
    Pray The Devil Back To Hell
    Psychological Abuse
    Pulp Fiction
    Queen Victoria
    Race
    Rasputin's Daughter
    Rear Window
    Russia
    Ruth Schell
    Sabine Bonnaire
    Sandrine Bonnaire
    Sara Baras
    Saving Mr Banks
    Sense And Sensibility
    Sex In A Cold Climate
    Simplon Pass
    Sisters
    Slavery
    Sleeping With The Enemy
    Spanish Civil War
    Sports
    Stacy Schiff
    Surma Tribe
    Sylvia Plath
    The Color Purple
    Their Eyes Were Watching God
    The Talented Mr. Ripley
    Tony Leung
    Uncle Tom's Cabin
    Victorian Era
    Viva Laldjerie
    War And Revolution
    Wild Swans
    William Zhang
    Wings Of The Dove
    Woody Allen
    WWII
    Yearling
    Zana Briski
    Zora Neale Hurston