Film | Suzanne Rogerson Fantasy Author

I jumped at the chance of watching The Girl on the Train on my way to New York last week. Not only did I enjoy the audiobook of it last year (see my review here) but I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get excited about my arrival in NYC.

Initially I was surprised to hear they were changing the location from London to New York, but in the end I don’t think the setting played much part in the film – it could have been set anywhere. This turned out to be a disappointment during my flight to NYC, but the film was entertaining enough to take my mind off all the turbulence we experienced.

As far as I can remember, the script stuck mostly to the book. The scenes jumped around quite a lot, as they do in the book, but for some reason it’s easier to follow in the book. Even for someone who knows the story, I did find myself getting confused a couple of times. I think this maybe because some of the story threads were not fully shown in the film, which is understandable in an adaptation.

I think Emily Blunt is a talented actress and she played a drunken Rachel Watson very well. All the acting in the film was good, although I don’t recall the detective in the book being as annoying as the one in the film.

The worse thing for me were the sex scenes. Although not explicit, it was terribly embarrassing to watch whilst sitting next to a complete stranger on the plane. Mind you, he was watching the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which also has plenty of sex scenes to blush over.

As far as entertainment goes, I enjoyed this film a lot and I recommend to those who love a mystery thriller.

I rate it 3.5 stars – the audio book got 4 stars.

Have you read the book, or listened to the audiobook? What do you think is best, book or film?

***

If anyone is interested, here’s my pictures of a snowy Central Park last week. I also hope to post some more pictures of my weekend in NYC tomorrow.

Film – Legend

Date – 2015

Length – 2 hours 12 minutes.

Cert 18

When I first heard Tom Hardy was doing a film about the Kray Twins and playing both Reggie and Ronny, my first thought was why? The second was how can he possibly pull it off?

I decided there and then that I didn’t want to watch it – even though I think Tom Hardy is an excellent actor.

However, the husband talked me around and I settled down with a glass of wine, fully expecting to hate the film. I don’t like gangster films and I don’t usually like films set in the 1960s. I’m a superhero, fantasy, thriller and comedy fan.

Legend took me by surprise. It was sometimes funny, sometimes gruesome, and there were touches of emotion that I wasn’t expecting. Tom Hardy did a brilliant job creating the two characters. You totally believed there were two actors playing the parts of the Kray twins.

I rate the film 4.5 stars and recommend it to everyone even if, like me, you don’t normally like gangster movies.

Now I have a craving for lemon sherbert (if you’ve seen the film you’ll understand).

Have you seen it? Have I persuaded you to give it a go?