Mixed reviews – but train puns ahoy – for Emily Blunt's Girl On The Train

The thriller tipped as being the new ‘Gone Girl’, the Emily Blunt-led ‘The Girl On The Train’, has been somewhat derailed at the hands of the critics.

And there are train puns aplenty too.

– Alec Baldwin sends up Trump in SNL
– The Purge 4 will be a prequel
– Star Trek stars speak out against Trump

Despite early hype it’s very much a mixed bag out there, with most notices finding the movie wanting, but expressly praising Blunt’s performance.

In it, she plays Rachel, a woman who descends into alcoholism after failing to get pregnant, her boyfriend then leaving her for another woman, with whom he now has a child.

On the train into Manhattan that she still takes – despite having lost her job, and suffering alcohol-induced black outs – she becomes obsessed with a young couple, fantasising about their lives.

But she then witnesses something shocking.

In an average 3/5 review, Radio Times’ Stella Papamichael writes: “Director Tate Taylor has created a very neat (if rather too tidy) domestic thriller, but he hasn’t exploited the medium to bring anything fresh to the story, riding instead on the solid track the book provides.”

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian was rather less impressed, with a two-star review (headlined ‘red herrings on the tracks signal problems’) writing: “This part doesn’t give [Blunt] any scope for recovery, for the all-important mastery and survival: she just always looks under the weather.

“This doesn’t give her half the juice and outrageous fun that Rosamund Pike had from Gone Girl. Fans of Paula Hawkins’s thriller might find themselves sticking to the book.”

Time magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek adds: “Blunt gives Rachel multiple dimensions – we could never view her as just a stewy mess. But the movie’s surprise (or perhaps not-so-surprising) twist doesn’t serve its lead character well, at best merely justifying her stalkerish behaviour.

Tim Robey in the Daily Telegraph writes: “Blunt’s Rachel might be a soused and broken bit of human wreckage, but she’s better than all this: there are too many moments when you wish this raddled stalker had simply been allowed to direct her own film.”

Robert Abele on The Wrap says: “When you’ve been spoiled by the dark, meticulous David Fincher lending his artistry to paperback potboilers with “Girl” in the title – even when they’re not his best work – Taylor’s flat commercial instincts make for diminishing returns.”

Some enjoyed it, however.

Rosie Fletcher on Digital Spy writes: “Blunt is exceptional – sympathetic and convincing at every turn while remaining a woman you might not want to sit next to on your commute.”

Leah Greenblatt in Entertainment Weekly adding: “[Taylor] deftly translates the bleak, raw-boned menace and tricky time signatures of Train’s intertwined plotlines, and draws remarkably vivid performances from his cast, particularly his two female leads.”

The movie is out across the UK from October 5.

Image credits: Universal