If there's one part of The Girl on the Train that could have been downplayed in the movie version, it's the main character's alcoholism. The disease is not easily portrayed on-screen and has been done terribly in many, many films. But the first trailer for the adaptation of Paula Hawkins's 2015 novel hints that the protagonist's drinking problem might be as prominent as the missing-person mystery at the center of its plot. The movie appears to be almost as much The Lost Weekend as the Gone Girl knockoff everyone's expecting.
Watch the first trailer below.
Bleary-eyed Emily Blunt stars as Rachel, the alcoholic divorcee who isn't over her ex-husband (Justin Theroux), especially as she passes the house they shared together every morning and evening during her rail commute. She also enjoys watching Tom's neighbors from the train, until one of them (Haley Bennett) goes missing the night that Rachel was wandering around the neighborhood intoxicated.
Did she see something happen? Did she cause something to happen? She tries to sober up and play detective to find out.
The movie also features Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation breakout Rebecca Ferguson as the ex's new wife, Luke Evans as the husband of the missing woman, Allison Janney as the actual detective on the case, and Edgar Ramirez as a psychiatrist whom Rachel begins seeing for answers and therapy. It's a good cast all around and they collectively look fine in the trailer, but Blunt still stands out as seeming too good for what is surely still primarily a conventional crime thriller appealing to audiences with sex and violence.
Perhaps the mix of deep psychological character drama and cheap, pulpy mystery plot will mix well via the script by Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary) and direction from Tate Taylor (The Help). We'll find out when the movie is released on October 7. For now, here's the first trailer:
