The Girl on the Train follows the intersecting stories of three women, all of whom are a bit unhappy with the current state of their lives. Rachel (Emily Blunt) rides the train to and from the city each day. From her seat in the third row, she peers into the houses and lives of those on the street where she once lived with husband Tom (Justin Theroux). She can see Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), the woman who stole her husband, with the baby she could never conceive, and thinks about all she has lost. She also watches Megan (Haley Bennett) and her husband Scott (Luke Evans)—who live two doors down—and fantasizes about how wonderful their lives must be. Rachael’s life, on the other hand, is a complete mess—she spends her train rides drunk, filled with regret and depression, sipping vodka out of her water bottle. When her marriage ended, Rachel asked friend Cathy (Laura Prepon) if she could temporarily crash at her place, but it’s been two years, nothing has changed and she’s still there. Rachel still has trouble accepting the state of her life, and much to Anna’s annoyance and dismay, she often shows up drunk at the door of her old home to see her ex-husband.

Meanwhile, the spark in Anna and Tom’s marriage has already started to fizzle. The excitement that came with having a mistress or being the “other woman” is now gone. The task of taking care of their baby keeps them busy and has led to a lack of romance. Neighbor Megan had been the couple’s nanny for almost 6 months, but now she’s ready to move on and gives her notice. Anna is disappointed to lose both the help and having someone else around to talk to. But Megan’s controlling husband really wants kids, and is constantly pressuring his wife to do so. Megan is growing increasingly unhappy in her marriage and expresses this to therapist Dr. Abdic (Édgar Ramírez). She even starts to fantasize about having a sexual relationship with him, even though he doesn’t return her advances.

During one of her daily commutes, Rachel notices something unusual happening at Megan’s home and decides to tell ex-husband Tom. However, she’s in one of her excited, inebriated states, and it isn’t long before Rachel blacks out. When Rachel wakes up, she is covered in blood and has no memories of what happened the previous night. Rachel she soon finds herself mixed up a deadly mystery, desperately trying to piece together what happened.

I didn’t know anything about premise of the film or novel before sitting down to watch this disc. As the film opens, it’s not very clear what the connection is between the women. We are introduced to each woman and hear her inner monologue as to the state of her life. However, due to her constantly inebriated and depressed state, Rachel is an unreliable narrator, and everything she says may or may not be true, and must be weighed against the perspectives of the other women. It is up to the viewer to try to figure out what is really going on and what has been skewed by Rachel’s emotions.

The film makes use of constant flashbacks at increasingly shorter intervals, slowly revealing the relationships between the women, and showing what has led these characters to this point in their lives. I found the film to be a little slow at first, but once Rachel has her drunken Rear Window moment and starts inserting herself into the investigation, things really picked up. And by the end there were some really unexpected and exciting twists and reveals.

Emily Blunt delivers a very raw, emotional performance. You really get a sense of how depressed and destroyed this woman is—her inability to conceive, which led to her drinking and the destruction of her marriage. The rest of the cast was also quite good, but I often found myself mixing up Anna and Megan. In the audio commentary the director states that in the novel, Anna and Megan are supposed to look very much alike, and that he gave the actresses different hairstyles in order to help the audience differentiate between them. However, I still had some trouble, and would need to think about which one of the women was in the current scene.

Both the Blu-ray and the Ultra HD disc included with this release provide crisp, clear detailed picture with rich colors. However, the HDR UHD presentation provides a slightly richer experience throughout the film. There is this extra level of detail and expanded palette of colors with things like the reflections in the train windows, the beautifully sun-lit scenes, or just seeing inebriated Rachel’s bloodshot eyes and rosy cheeks/nose. The audio track provides clear dialogue, a beautiful score by Danny Elfman, and gives a nice rumble as the train moves down the tracks. While there is some use of the surround channel for the score and the sound of the train, the DTS: X track never felt as immersive as some of the other films I’ve recently reviewed. The disc contains a small but decent selection of bonus material, including 17 minutes of deleted scenes, 16 minutes of cast/crew interviews and a director commentary.

The 4K UHD release comes packed in standard keepcase with a slipcover, and contains an insert with a code to redeem for an UltraViolet/iTunes digital copy of the film.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:52:06)

4K Ultra HD:
• 2160p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• HDR
• Audio: English DTS:X, English DTS Headphone:X, French 5.1 DTS Digital Surround, Spanish 5.1 DTS Digital Surround, Portuguese 5.1 DTS Digital Surround
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese

Blu-ray:

• 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: English DTS:X, English DTS Headphone:X, Spanish 5.1 DTS Digital Surround, French 5.1 DTS Digital Surround, English Descriptive Video Service
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital HD (for redemption deadline, see NBCUcodes.com):

• Digital copy redeemable via UltraViolet (Universal, Flixster or Vudu) OR iTunes
  (The UV code that comes with this 4K release redeems in UHD)

Extras:
All of the bonus features, except for the audio commentary, can only be found on the Blu-ray disc.

• Deleted and Extended Scenes (17:38)
  Collection of 14 deleted/extended scenes—with the exception of the last two, many of these are really short and only include very minor additions or changes. Play All or select from “Rachel Rides the Train”, “Rachel Arrives at Grand Central”, “Megan Screams as Train Passes”, “Megan’s Flashback”, “Megan Leaves Anna’s House”, “Rachel Pees in the Street”, “Rachel Almost Gets Hit By a Taxi”, “Rachel Takes Selfies”, “Rachel Drinks in the Bathroom”, “Anna Looks Out Her Window”, “Rachel Sees Man in Suit”, “Tom and Anna Discuss Moving”, “Tom’s Request”, and “Tom Begs Anna for Forgiveness”. Subtitles are offered in English SDH, Spanish and French.
• The Women Behind The Girl (5:04)
  Author Paula Hawkins talks about the three central female characters of the film. Producer Marc Platt and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson discuss the challenges of adapting the novel. And director Tate Taylor talks about his initial meeting with the author.
• On Board The Train (11:25)
  The cast and crew discuss the story and characters, the different shooting styles used for each of the characters, casting the film, having fun on set, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with producer Marc Platt, director Tate Taylor, directory of photography Charlotte Bruus Christensen, and actors Emily Blunt (“Rachel”), Rebecca Ferguson (“Anna”), Haley Bennett (“Megan”), Allison Janney (“Detetive Riley”), Justin Theroux (“Tom”), Luke Evans (“Scott”) and Édgar Ramírez (“Abdic”).
• Audio Commentary (1:52:06)
  Director Tate Taylor provides an entertaining and informative commentary throughout the film, however there are moments where he stops talking for long periods of time. He tells a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the production, talks about the sets and how various shots and effects were done, and mentions some of the differences between the novel and film.

Final Thoughts:

The Girl on the Train starts off a little slow, but once it gets into gear, it becomes an exciting mystery/thriller. Emily Blunt delivers a strong, emotional performance, and is joined by a very talented supporting cast. The UHD presentation provides a rich, detailed picture that is a slight improvement on the already-stellar looking Blu-ray release. The audio track provides clear dialogue and score, but never felt as fully immersive as I had hoped. The release also contains a nice selection of bonus material. This is a very beautiful-looking and rawly-emotional film that is worth checking out.