Finished The Girl on the Train, a Gone Girl wannabe and I didn't think that much of Gone Girl. This seems to be THE new genre in fiction and as long as the book is written by a woman featuring a woman protagonist the rights are snapped up before publication. Now, Gone Girl at least had a director who knows who to, well, direct. The Girl on the Train makes the huge mistake of hiring a director who can't direct - this former actor's biggest film was the dreadful The Help. That's the guy you want to direct a thriller, which is, I think think, what The Girl on the Train aspires to be. Haven't read the book, of course, but have read enough about it to know that much of the dreadful and I do mean dreadful dialogue comes straight from the book. But more in the notes - suffice it to say the film is dreadful, with no style, a terrible score by Danny Elfman that renders the film inert at every step, and some okay performances that can't really be more than okay because of the characters themselves and how poorly they're written (in the film at least). It deservedly laid a huge egg at the box-office. Oh, and of course everyone talks about how twisty it is. Really? There isn't a twist in the entire film other than the reveal of the villain and if you don't know who that is after ten minutes you can retire from the thriller club.
