The Girl on the Train (2021), A Review

What really happened that night?

The Girl on the Train stage play review.

Based on Paula Hawkins’ book of the same name, Netflix’s Indian remake of The Girl on the Train follows Mira Kapoor (Parineeti Chopra), a once promising young lawyer engaged to Dr. Shekhar (Avinash Tiwary) and expecting a child whose entire changed after a fatal car crash. After losing her baby and divorcing Shekhar, Mira becomes to rely on alcohol and becomes a shadow of her former self. Now, Mira repeatadly takes the same train journey, always observing happy couple Nusrat (Aditi Rao Hydari) and Anand (Shamaun Ahmed) and living vicariously through them.

One day however Mira spots Nusrat with a man who is not her husband- later revealed to be her therapist Dr. Hamid (Tota Roy Chowdhury). She angrily goes to confront Nusrat about throwing her life away but then blacks out and wakes up covered in blood. The next day an Inspector Dalbir Kaur Bagga (Kirti Kulhari) visits Mira, after her identity card is discovered next to a dead Nusrat. Mira must now prove her innocence and try to figure out who really killed Nusrat, the only trouble is she had lost her memory from that night. As she dives deeper into the case Mira becomes consumed with a terrifying thought, what if she is the killer?

This version of The Girl on the Train did make changes from the original book and film- both major and minor. From the trailer alone I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be a perfect adaptation but in many ways this was a completely different story. The core features are still there- alcoholic woman with an ex husband, train journey where said woman spies on the ‘perfect couple’, murder of that woman, but from that the film took many liberties. Saying this though I did still enjoy the film. It’s always tricky when adaptations make such big changes (eg Ordeal by Innocence, Truth be Told) because on the one hand book readers are disappointed but on the other hand you get to relive the story again and be genuinely surprised. I suppose it all depends on the quality of the writing.

Straight away one of the biggest differences between the two films is that this was actually set in the UK like the original book. I remember the first time around I got so annoyed at the change in location because I think at its heart The Girl on the Train was a very British story. It may sound stupid but I didn’t actually there were trains in the US, I thought that all travel was via underground subway, so the change from UK to US really didn’t make sense to me. The UK is a very train based country and it is one of the most popular modes of transport so I was happy to see the adaptation now set in the original country it was based.

I feel like compared to original main character Rachel, Mira was a lot more assertive in her actions and active in solving the murder. Here, Mira actually attempts to clear her name by looking into Nusrat’s life and trying to figure out what really happened. I feel like making Mira a lawyer was also a smart move because she understood a lot more of what was going on around her. With her legal background she knew how much trouble she was in and she knew what to tell the police and what not to tell them. Making Mira mlore assertive in her ways than Rachel ever was made for a more compelling watch because in the end she did actually work everything out, meaning her ending felt a lot more earned.

I really enjoyed the film’s ending and how it diverted from the original book, both because I wasn’t expecting it but also because it made a lot of sense. For the most part, the first half of the film stayed pretty accurate to the book and so I was expecting the ending to stay the same as well, meaning when the twist came I was genuinely suprised. On top of this, the twist made a lot of sense and there were hints dropped throughout- things I initially brushed off as bad writing. Looking back it makes so much sense that the Inspector was crooked because she was doing such a bad job of the investigation. Initially I thought the film just wanted to make her seem unlikeable but really she was purposely sabotaging because she was the guilty party, it was all very clever and I liked the final payoff.

I think it’s difficult to compare the two Girl on the Train films and I definitely couldn’t say that one was better than the other. Both had their respective strengths and weaknesses, performing well in different areas. I also think that the plot changes-both major and minor- make it hard to compare the two stories because they both end on completely different notes. Whilst neither are a perfect adaptation to the original book I enjoyed watching both and would probably watch both again. I would definitely recommend any fans of the original book or film watch this remake, even to see what changes have been made.

Overall I did enjoy this remake of The Girl on the Train. It definitely made some major changes from the source material but in the context of the film these changes made a lot of sense. The return to the UK location and more assertive main character also improved the quality of the film and overall I have enjoyed both versions. I’d definitely recommend this to fans of the original book and film, it may be a slightly different retelling but it’s just as good as the original.