“The Girl on the Train” is a thrilling murder mystery filled with intense plot twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

]The movie, which is based on the best-selling novel of the same title, follows the lives of three women living in the New York suburbs: Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt), Anna Watson (Rebecca Ferguson), and Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett). They are all connected in some way, more than they might think as the movie goes on. In short, Anna stole Rachel’s ex-husband, Megan was the nanny for Anna’s baby, and Megan is the girl that Rachel watches from the train as she commutes to Manhattan every day.

All three of the women face many personal issues and internal struggles. Some of their issues are more obvious, like Rachel’s heavy addiction to alcohol. Other issues are more hidden. Megan’s life looks perfect from the outside, and Rachel wants nothing more than to be in her shoes. However, Megan harbors multiple secrets that she only shares with her therapist, whom she’s having an affair with. All of their personal issues intertwining lead up to the intense climax of the story involving a surprising character as the killer.

The acting is a big part of what made “The Girl on the Train” so good. Emily Blunt as Rachel Watson aced her part as an alcoholic, making Rachel’s struggles as she falls apart feel real. As well as Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson and Haley Bennett nailed their roles as female leads.

Since the movie is a book adaptation, there were multiple challenges the director, Tate Taylor, had to face. One difficulty was that the story has various rotating narrators, so it seems like it would be difficult to transform the novel into a movie. However, Taylor did an incredible job with that aspect of the film. The transitions were smooth and made sense. The book also had a lot of flashbacks. Each flashback gave a little bit more information about the events leading up to the murder, so it was important that these were done well in the movie adaptation, which they were. It can easily get confusing when showing flashbacks in films, but they were very clear and well done.

One drawback of the film is that a few of the scenes, particularly the murder scene, are gory and vivid, which could be hard for some viewers to watch. However, the movie is rated R, so gore is to be expected.

Overall, I would give the “The Girl on the Train” an A. If you like thrillers and suspenseful movies, then this would be a good movie for you. Although it would enhance your experience with the story if you read the book first, that isn’t necessary to enjoy the film, since it is a great movie on its own.