The Girl on the Train on track for Oscar gold

SECUNDA – If you enjoyed Gone Girl and The Secret Window, you will love the cinematic masterpiece that is The Girl on the Train

Emily Blunt delivers her career best performance as Rachel Watson.

She has been divorced for nearly two years, but her daily commute takes her past the up-state New York neighbourhood where she once lived with her now ex-husband Tom Watson.

The house she shared with him is clearly visible from her seat at the window of the third car of the train and she can easily keep tabs on him, his new wife Anna Boyd, with whom he cheated on Rachel, and their baby daughter Evie.

Rachel’s careful facade begins to crumble and you realise that she is a self destructive alcoholic who not only lost her job after her divorce, but also frequently drank so much that she would black out and have to rely on other people to tell her what she had done.

Two houses down from her old house, lives another couple who Rachel does not know, but around who she has built a fantasy world of the perfect love and the perfect marriage.

Their names are Scott and Megan Hipwell and as it turns out, Megan is hired to work as a nanny for Tom and Anna.

On one of her train trips past the neighbourhood, Rachel witnesses something that shatters her fragile hold on reality.

She goes out drinking and makes an incriminating video on her cell phone in which she explains in detail how she realised that Tom was having an affair with their realtor and how she would like to smash Anna’s head in for destroying her marriage.

Megan, the perfect wife from her fantasy, is kissing another man on the deck of her house.

Rachel has an emotional episode and leaves the train at the next station, planning to confront Megan for her infidelity.

Night is falling and in a drunken stupor Rachel meets a blonde woman in a dark tunnel and shouts at her, before her memories become confused.

She wakes up the next morning with a head wound, covered in blood and mud and unsure how she got home, and with the news flash that Megan has disappeared.

Through flashes of car doors, physical altercations, shouts, a running man and a blonde woman, Rachel must now try and come to terms with what she had done in that dark tunnel.

Through a similar style of first person storytelling with the use of strong but embellished dialogue and intimate close-ups, you get a glimpse into the lives of the “other women”.

You realise that Anna is overwhelmed and exhausted as a new mother and that Tom seems to be a kind and supportive husband, whereas the apparently perfect Megan is vain, self-involved and aloof, not caring much for Anna or Evie and being unfaithful to Scott.

Scott turns out to be controlling, demanding and jealous.

As Rachel attempts to piece together the events of the night Megan disappeared, you see more of her self destructive nature and begin to feel sorry for Tom, who had to deal with this behaviour before the divorce.

A chance encounter on the train, an attempt at taking control of her live, a cell phone found in a bag, a discussion with a therapist revealed and a body found all come together beautifully, if tragically to make the climax of this film one of the best ever written.

Emily Blunt as Rachel Watson, Haley Bennett as Megan Hipwell, Rebecca Ferguson as Anna Boyd, Justin Theroux as Tom Watson, Luke Evans as Scott Hipwell and an equally accomplished supporting cast of Allison Janney, Édgar Ramírez, Lisa Kudrow, Laura Prepon and Darren Goldstein truly make this film a masterpiece worthy of an Oscar nod.

The soundtrack perfectly supports the build up to chaos and the art directing is on point.

Each wardrobe choice, each set design, each piece of furniture or scene of nature was thought out carefully and used to overtly, or covertly express a development in the storyline.

This film just goes to show once more that although the book usually beats the movie, a well written story can be adapted to film with care and precision to become equally as thrilling.

This film does have scenes of graphic violence and the psychological turmoil of the characters make it one that stays with you.