The film is based on the novel of the same name by British author Paula Hawkins. Since its publication in 2015, the novel has been the top seller in the UK for 20 consecutive weeks, and sold 1.5 million copies in the US in 4 weeks, breaking the record of The Da Vinci Code's 12-year reign. But the film did not reach such high ratings.
The reason is that the suspenseful plot setting of the story itself is too simple, at least I guessed the ending quickly. However, a good suspense film is not just about making people unable to guess the ending, but progressively progressing all kinds of clues, making the audience doubt and shake their own judgments, so as to reach the climax. At the same time as the truth is announced, the audience will find that all the previous details are valuable. Clearly, the film hasn't reached that height yet.
This less suspenseful story is actually about the confusion of women's inner world. The story of the original book unfolds slowly in the first person, told from the perspectives of three women, and resonates by bringing readers into their inner world through their monologues. However, after the words that the author tried to pile up were turned into a movie, the lens was more developed from the heroine alone. Because of the scattered and unreasonable parts of the script, the actor's self-play is particularly important. Fortunately, the heroine is played by Emily Blunt.
Emily's acting career is quite broad, and she was nominated for two Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Gideon's Daughter". In Tom Cruise's sci-fi film "Edge of Tomorrow" also has a good performance.
In this film, the heroine she plays is not a "girl", but a middle-aged woman who divorced her husband because of infertility after marriage. She was in a daze all day, relying on alcohol to anesthetize herself. Still riding the commuter train after being unemployed and pretending to be at work. The train stops at the same signal light every day, and she always looks through the window, peeping at the people by the railway, killing time in her imagination. Until she discovered that what she saw in her eyes and what she hoped for in her heart was completely different from reality.
Emily interprets the heroine's inner pain and suffering, self-doubt, and inescapable desire just right, injecting vitality into this completely fictional character.
The author once said that she likes "dark" themes very much. To reveal the darkest side of marriage, she wrote in the book: Every couple tries to be faithful, but in the end, they are all exposed in different ways. Exhausted.
This point of view seems a bit extreme. The fictional male protagonist in the movie should be regarded as the best scumbag. In real marriages, extreme situations such as derailment and violence certainly exist, after all, not most of them. What really kills happiness in marriage is probably the inability to coordinate with each other, the inner disappointment after the other party shows his true colors, and the eternal boredom. Although he shoulders responsibility, living with a person who no longer has passion, there is an uncontrollable emptiness and inexplicable confusion in his heart.
Just like the inner monologue of the heroine in the book: "The sun is shining and there are no clouds in the sky. There is such a beautiful time, but there is no one to accompany you, and there is nothing to do." In the long journey of life, everyone wants to meet a suitable travel companion and share it at any time. Feeling. But if you love because of loneliness, you will end up being lonely because of love.
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