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The Girl on the Train provides a glimpse into modern day suburbia mixed with a twist of darkness as this suspenseful thriller follows three women, Rachel, Megan and Anna, bound together by one story. Through the movie, you see into impactful moments through the eyes of the women and how each of their paths brings them together for a purpose greater than themselves. Each woman represents a different perspective of relationships, hardships and life itself.

Rachel

Emily Blunt plays Rachel, an alcoholic who escapes reality through daydreaming relationships with people she watches from the train. Tortured by her past relationship with her ex husband and by passing the home they once shared, Rachel becomes connected to her ex-husbands mistress turned wife, Anna.

Rachel soon becomes intrigued with their neighbor a few doors down, Megan. In Rachel’s mind, Megan is the embodiment of what she aspires to be, and the love Megan shares with her husband is what every person dreams of having. When Rachel witnesses Megan having an “affair,” the rage from Rachel’s past relationship resurfaces and causes her to confront Megan, or who she thinks is Megan, in the tunnel beneath the train tracks.

Megan

Haley Bennett performs the role of Megan, a troubled mid-twenties girl who is the “mistress of self reinvention.” Always looking for a new future to escape past relationships, issues and self-identities within her life, she often thinks of leaving on the train. Megan is married to her husband Scott and though she works as a nanny to Anna’s new child, Megan resists the idea of starting a family. To Megan, the train represents adventure and rediscovery, and as she escapes her reality through various romantic and sexual relationships, her past issues reemerge and force her to confront her demons from the past.

Anna

Performed by Rebecca Ferguson, Anna is the mistress turned wife to Rachel’s ex-husband. After a drunken incident with Rachel, Anna becomes paranoid of her and easily assumes the worst when Megan goes missing. Throughout the movie, Anna is selfish and fixated on Rachel, blinding her ability to be present in her reality and seeing the truth behind the secrets surrounding Megan’s disappearance. From mistress to housewife, Anna embodies the insecurity people face when involved in a relationship that constitutes cheating as a form of connection, and represents “the other woman’s” perspective post-affair.

Summary

For an avid moviegoer like myself, I found that The Girl on the Train grabbed my attention strictly based how the story developed over time, as well as by seeing through the eyes of each of the three women. The Girl on the Train follows the lives of Rachel, Megan and Anna through a non-linear structure of sequences from the past to the present that lead the three women to come together. As the movie develops, secrets unfold and lies are exposed until the truth unravels behind who they are and what really happened to Megan. If developing plots and active thinking are things you enjoy, The Girl on the Train is the movie to see.