Movies – The Girl on the Train Review (or ‘Nobody Has Passwords Like That In 2016, Surely?’)

I’ll cut to the chase…

The Girl on the Train is a decent movie. While it’s initially a bit confusing, told as it is in a non-linear style with parts that don’t make any sense until they are revisited later, the end result is an enjoyable story with some entertaining twists and a satisfying resolution.

Some of the acting is a bit dodgy though. Emily Blunt is fine in the lead even though she hams it up a bit while doing drunk acting, but some of the other players – notably Justin Theroux and Luke Evans – appeared to be made out of wood.

But anyway, I wanted to get those points across early and focus my review on two aspects of TV and Film that really bug me that were on display here.

1) When People In TV and Film Try To Guess Passwords

Now maybe I’m in the minority, but of all the multiple passwords I have for websites and computer logins, none are ones that anyone would be able to guess. In 2016 does anyone who feels the need to password protect their PC have a password that is either the name of their wife, ex-wife of child? Of course not. The whole point of a password is that it shouldn’t be guessable, and it should have a variety of letters numbers and/or characters.

And yet in the Girl on the Train – and in loads of other examples of TV and Film – those are the sorts of things people guess when trying – often successfully – to crack someone’s password.

It does my head in; I just don’t think that sort of thing happens in real life.

2) Villain Revelation Syndrome

The Girl on the Train also has that nonsensical moment when a character finds out that someone unexpected is the villain. Up until that point that someone has been acting nice and normal; there’s no reason to suggest he or she is the bad guy.

And yet the moment it’s revealed and we the audience are let in on the secret, the character suddenly starts to act like a proper bastard.

To me, that’s bad writing.

To be clear, within the context of the movie, this character doesn’t know anyone knows that s/he’s the villain, so why would s/he act differently?

It’s stupid.

Of course, those are only two aspects of TV and film that bug me; I wrote a series of articles on that very topic, starting with this one. You can find the rest in the article index.

But to go back to The Girl on the Train, it is – as I said above – a decent and entertaining movie.

Good enough to pay to see? Perhaps not, but one that you should try to catch up on at some point.