2016 is a year for movie lovers. Some great movies are anticipated to be released this year. It is also the year for women as some of the greatest movies and sequels are coming out this year. My big fat Greek wedding 2, pride and prejudice and zombies and how to be single are some of the titles people are anticipating this year. For me however, being in love with the book and all; the most anticipated movie is the girl on the train. Please do not compare it to the movie ‘the girl on the train’ which was released in 2012. That is an entirely different movie. Although I haven’t seen that one but I have heard from people that I am lucky that I have not. IMDB rates it a low 4.4 out of 10 which already says a lot about the movie.
The Girl on The Train is an adaptation from Paula Hawkins book which has the same title. It is a story of a drunken girl who is a divorcee and travels through a train everyday just looking at people and relating to their lives. It will be very relatable as we all tend to do the same while looking at complete strangers and fantasizing what their lives would be like.
Storyline
The story is basically about a girl, Rachel who commutes by a train every day. She sees people in different houses and have actually started relating to some of them. She knows one couple as Scott and Megan who seem to be having a perfect life. She sometimes wishes she could be part of it until one day she witnesses something terrible. She witnesses Megan’s murder.
What will she do with this information? She had a blackout and being a drunk, she knows that the police will never believe her. What will she do now? We follow Rachel throughout the movie to witness what happens and how she deals with this information. We see how this affects her while she is not even certain of what she saw in the first place.
About The Author
Paula Hawkins is a 43 year old writer from the United Kingdom. She began writing under the pseudonym Amy Silver and has written 4 novels. Her best-seller however, The Girl on the train came out in 2015. She is one smart woman who studied philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University. She has worked as a business journalist for the times and has written as a freelance writer some more. She was a journalist for a good 15 years before she moved toward fictional writing. She has always had an interest in women and their well-being however as she wrote a book called The Money Goddess.
Hawkins had a go hard or go home approach while writing this book as she actually was in a financial crisis when she wrote this book and actually had to borrow money from her father to complete the book. That paid off no doubt and the book broke Dan Brown’s record and was up on the charts for a good 20 weeks. According to fox 5 it was the most checked out book at the San Diego County library for last year. Paula Hawkins however has not written the plot for the movie as she believes it is not something she will be too good at so she has just decided to dedicate her time into writing another book. However, she is quite excited about the movie and says that she is glad that Emily Blunt is playing the lead character. No doubt there, she’ll be great in the part!
Paula has said that the character of Rachel is not based on her life at all and the only similarity between them is that they do not have children. She also said that there have been instances where she has had one too many drinks and have stumbled in taxis and have had blackouts but Rachel nonetheless has nothing to do with her personally whatsoever.
Emily Blunt As Rachel Watson
Born in London, England, now 32 year old actress caught the attention of Americans after she was casted in My Summer Love in 2004 which was a movie about lesbians (a great watch I must say.) She is a tall and rather sensual brunette who has done quite a few memorable films since.
Other people on the cast include Rebecca Ferguson playing Anna, Haley Bennet playing Megan, Edgar Ramirez playing Dr. Kamal Abdic, Laura Preppon playing Cathy. All these characters come out of the book and readers would be quite familiar with them. I can only think about whether these people will be able to do justice to their characters.
Production
The rights of the movie were initially bought off Paula Hawkins by DreamWorks Pictures back in March 2014. Its production is being done by Marc. E Platt productions and the script was written by Erin Cressida Wilson.
Release Date
DreamWorks got in a deal with Disney which was releasing the movie through Touchstone on 7th October 2016. The deal was however never renewed and now the movie is being released by Universal Pictures on the same date so fans should not worry.
Why should you watch it?
Well if you have read the book and you enjoyed it as much as I did then I do not need to convince you to watch the movie. In fact, you would be buying extra large butter pop corn and hitting he cinema when it is out. At least that is what my girlfriend and I are going to do. It is one of my most anticipated movies for 2016.
A book that spent 20 weeks on the New York’s best-sellers list is bound to produce a good movie. If you don’t believe me… just believe the facts.
If you are not a book person, that is alright too. In fact, you’ll enjoy the movie at edge of your seats. I really do hope the movie is as good as I believe it will be. Sometimes it’s more fun to watch a movie when you have not read the book before, that way the element of suspense remains. Be sure to catch this movie then.
Let me warn you though, the movie may have some psychological elements to it. It is not your regular chic-flick so watch it when you are in for a nice serious watch otherwise you can just watch one of the many comedy romances coming out this year.
Interesting Facts
- The movie has been shifted from its English setting from the book to upstate New York where the shooting is done in White Plains, Irvington and Hastings on Hudson.
- The film is being directed by Tate Taylor (the director of The Help).
