The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller drama in the same vein as Gone Girl from 2014 and Fatal Attraction from 1987. Infidelity which leads to erratic behavior and eventually somebody dies. It always amazes me how the same story can be told with slightly different details and it never gets old… This movie captures that sentiment…

Story: It’s well written in a very simple way. The idea is to keep the view/reader guessing and to a point, that is the case. But, the writers do a really good job of creating doubt about the main character. They use her angst with not being able to have a baby to define her mania. In the end, we get to the true villain, but, it doesn’t start that way and as the story unfolds, you think it could be any one of the cast of characters.

Performances: Emily Blunt is Rachel, Justin Theroux is her ex-husband Tom and Anna is his new wife with which he has had a baby where he and Rachel could not. Haley Bennett is Megan – Their nanny and neighbor… Her husband is Scott, played by Luke Evans and Edgar Ramirez is Megan’s therapist.

At some point, you will think each one of them is the villain. But the standout performance is Emily Blunt as Rachel. It’s an emotional performance. Potential Oscar nomination. Justin Theroux and Luke Evans deliver good work, but, I don’t see the range for an Oscar.

Visual: It all looks so real. The train, the neighborhood, the alcoholism. It’s not a stretch to see how this exact scenario could easily be reality. The scenes from Manhattan help confirm the path to Rachel’s spiral into depression, as does the flashbacks and the therapy sessions for Megan’s character.

The final word for The Girl on the Train: It gets an A- only because I can’t really find too much wrong with it. I wasn’t blown away – I did figure out who the villain was mid-way, but, it was still very well done without being overdone. Introduction, story development, ending with closure. Spot on.

My only mention with regard to figuring out who the true villain is… is… pay attention to early scenes in the woods and think back to the beginning…