2015’s most popular book is now 2016’s most talked about film- The Girl on the Train. The story of alcoholic Rachel and the intertwining lives of her ex-husband, Tom, his new wife Anna, and the couple from two doors down, Megan and Scott- is everywhere right now. Put it this way, when arriving on holiday this summer, my friend and I realised we had both taken it as holiday reads. Since the book was super acclaimed among critics, the announcement of the screen adaptation was met with great anticipation.
Here are some of the main differences between the book and film. Careful! I’ve tried to avoid too many spoilers, but… spoiler alert:
Casting Emily Blunt
Prior to the film’s release, the casting of Emily Blunt as Rachel, the protagonist, led to some believing that the story was already becoming too ‘Hollywood’, claiming that Blunt was ‘too pretty’. The book portrays Rachel to be very much a ‘plain-Jane’ character with little thought to her appearance, carrying a little excess weight and generally downcast. Personally, however, I don’t believe this to be true. As the book is narrated by untrustworthy Rachel, her self-loathing nature and lack of confidence in herself means that her descriptions of herself are warped by her own mentality.
Location change
For some stupid reason, it was decided that the novel’s London backdrop would be changed to be set in Upstate New York, the most controversial change between the book and film. Its clear this was done to help appeal to American audiences but as consequence, the gloomy-tense British atmosphere that was created in the novel, almost acting as a secondary character in itself, was lost.
Added scenes
My two best scenes in the film aren’t actually in the book. Both are completely lead by Emily Blunt’s superb acting, and are the only real moments of character development. The first is a bathroom scene, in which Rachel is blindly drunk and taking selfie videos with some random woman, screaming ‘f*** you’ to Anna, her ex-husband’s new wife. Without realising, Rachel places her phone down, still recording, as she has a minor breakdown talking to the rando (although really to herself in the mirror) where the audience realises just how devastated, broken and truly angry she is about the breakdown of her marriage. Next, is an AA meeting where a sober Rachel, again becomes movingly emotional while explaining her disconnect between the drunken antics she can’t remember and herself
A small spoiler-free clip of this- can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoYqkxi4gCQ
As the book is narrated by Rachel, Anna and Megan, the film simply doesn’t have the time to go deeply into each character, therefore these scenes are the only true glimpses we get of Rachel’s true character. Megan has a couple, but they’re not delivered as well so, although her life’s sad, you don’t feel the tragedy like you do in the book. As for Anna, meh… she’s just kind of there and easily forgotten.
Character changes
As for secondary characters, there are two main changes in the film compared to the book. First, the random guy Rachel always sees on the train, turns out to help reveal some important info about the fateful night Rachel is so desperately trying to remember. Though in the film, there’s literally no real reason for him to be there.
Secondly, Lisa Kudrow crops up as a completely made-up character for the film called Martha, who is married to Tom’s boss. While Kudrow isn’t in the film much, it turns out she’s pretty crucial to the story as Martha has clearly been created as a quick way to get a revelation out of Rachel to create the twist that ultimately concludes all Rachel’s and your conspiracy theories.
Despite these differences, and a few unmentioned others, it’s still worth a watch, and definitely worth a read! It’s also important to remember this is an adaptation, it’s still faithful to the book!