Paula Hawkins | Cinema Parrot Disco

Two quick reviews of two film adaptations of two books I read. My reviews of Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs can be found HERE & The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins HERE. Okay, one is a thriller but the other is close enough to being a “horror” so I’m doing these for October Horror Month. Let’s see what I thought of the movies…

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (2016)

Directed by Tim Burton

Screenplay by Jane Goldman

Based on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Starring: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Chris O’Dowd, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Terence Stamp, Ella Purnell, Judi Dench, Samuel L. Jackson

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDB)
When Jacob discovers clues to a mystery that stretches across time, he finds Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. But the danger deepens after he gets to know the residents and learns about their special powers.

My Opinion:

When I was in the middle of reading this book years ago, I said to the hubby “Tim Burton needs to make this into a movie”. Imagine my surprise when Hollywood did something right for a change! He was the absolute perfect choice to adapt this book & he did a very good job with it. The problem is that 1) I didn’t exactly love the book, although I loved the “gimmick” of the old photographs that were used throughout it and 2) Tim Burton hasn’t made anything truly fantastic in years, which still breaks my heart as I absolutely adored his oldest films. I’d say this was somewhat a return to form for Burton but, as I said, I didn’t love the source material so was unlikely to love the movie.

From what I remember of the book, it seems a faithful adaptation until the end. But I didn’t care enough to continue reading the books so it’s possible the movie continues a bit into the next book for all I know? I wouldn’t say it renewed my interest enough to read the remaining books but I’d certainly watch a sequel if Burton makes one. The performances were pretty strong and, like Burton being the perfect choice for director, I think Eva Green was a perfect choice for playing Miss Peregrine. The child actors also all did a good job (I think Burton always does well in casting his films), with the lead young roles (played by Asa Butterfield & Ella Purnell) as the standouts. Terence Stamp & especially Judi Dench weren’t given much to do, which was a shame. And I enjoyed Samuel L. Jackson as always (who doesn’t love Sam Jackson?!) but he’s phoning it in a bit with this baddie role. Sorry, Mr. Jackson! I apologize a trillion times!

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is a good adaptation of a bizarre book thanks to its also bizarre director. And I liked the look & vibe of it, as I always do with Burton’s style. I wish I liked both the book and the film more than I do, though. I like “weird” so can’t really put my finger on why the story didn’t quite work for me. With the book, I think I just couldn’t connect with the characters. To be fair, I think Burton improved on this with the film and I’d say this is one of those cases where the movie might be slightly better than the book. It also helped that it got a proper ending, as opposed to the open-ended cliffhanger that just left me frustrated with the book.

My Rating: 6.5/10

The Girl On The Train (2016)

Directed by Tate Taylor

Based on The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Starring: Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Haley Bennett, Luke Evans, Allison Janney, Édgar Ramírez, Lisa Kudrow

Music by Danny Elfman

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDB)
A divorcee becomes entangled in a missing persons investigation that promises to send shockwaves throughout her life.

My Opinion:

I thought this book, although fun in a pulp-y sort of way, was pretty horrible. This was mainly because the characters were all truly hateful. The story itself was okay and I found it a very quick read as I wanted to get to the resolution of its mystery but, wow, I didn’t give the slightest crap what would happen to any of the characters. Not even ONE likable person? Really?? I’ll never understand stories that choose to make us despise everyone in them. And the thing with the baby upset me too much (and kind of pissed me off).

Well, the movie is a faithful adaptation, so… What can I say? I didn’t like the book so I wasn’t going to like a faithful adaptation anyway. The fact that is stars Emily Blunt, who is kind of a girl crush of mine, is what made me even bother to stick this on one evening & half pay attention to it. Meh. I don’t know. I just didn’t care. The actors did what they could with the material but the material was weak. Hold on a second – in this double review, Danny Elfman did the music for this movie but not the Tim Burton movie?! Now that’s bizarre.

My Rating: 5/10

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

What It’s About: (via the back cover)

Every Day The Same. Until Today.

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens.

She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking, and in one moment everything changes.

Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.

Now they’ll see: she’s much more than just the girl on the train…

My Thoughts:

I pretty much hated this book. I’ve never read a book full of so many annoying & hateful characters! The characters in this made me almost like the people in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. I’d rather be friends with everyone in Gone Girl than with any of these self-absorbed assholes. Why was there so much hype over this book? Between the hype & knowing it was going to be made into a movie starring Emily Blunt (I love her), I was really excited to finally read this one. Ugh. I’m never listening to hype again.

Rachel is our main character, the girl on the train. This is who Emily Blunt will be playing and I hope they make this character a little less pathetic for the movie. It’ll break my heart to see Blunt go from playing someone so kick-ass in the excellent Edge Of Tomorrow to playing a woman who spends the entirety of this book drinking & moping around just because her husband left her. Okay, it’s sad to be dumped but I think this takes place a year or so later and you just want to scream at her “Get over it! Move on!“. You’d maybe feel sorry for Rachel if she didn’t end up being so hateful.

At least we get some other characters, right? Luckily, the book also spends quite a bit of time on the characters in the homes that Rachel can see from the train. Unfortunately, though, they’re just as hateful. One thing I really can’t stand are people who are completely self-absorbed & I think this is actually a huge disturbing trend in today’s society (thanks, Kardashithingies – I refuse to spell that name out as I don’t want it linked to my blog). Each character is so “me me me” and cares only if their actions have immediate consequences for themselves. The women are obsessed with themselves & with their men (or lack of men). The men, who are secondary characters, are so one-dimensional. I felt like both the men & the women were written as gender stereotypes and I’ve never been so completely unable to relate to anyone in a story.

So what about the story? It’s hard to get into the story at all since it revolves around a mystery and I don’t want to spoil it for anyone still wanting to read this or to watch the movie. I’ll say that the story is okay. I’ll even say that I was very into the mystery at first & read this book very quickly as I was so eager to find out what was going on. But it falls apart at the end & I wasn’t happy with the direction it took. Predictable & silly. One character also does something so horribly unforgivable & inexcusable, naïve or not, that I was actually quite angry at this being used as a plot device. If not for that one thing, I’d probably be a little more forgiving of the story.

I can’t help but compare this to Gone Girl as both were huge best sellers involving a mystery & similar sorts of characters. But Gone Girl, despite its faults, was actually very well-written and a far better book. You have to give a little bit of credit to The Girl On The Train for obviously being inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s brilliant Rear Window but, well, it’s certainly no Rear Window… Yikes. What an insult to Grace Kelly & Jimmy Stewart! Rachel is like the anti-Grace Kelly.

Hated Rachel. Hated Anna. Hated Megan. Hated the men whose names I can’t even remember as they were written as such shallow characters that I was insulted on behalf of men everywhere. But the story wasn’t the worst thing ever, I suppose. It moved along fairly quickly & would make for a good made-for-TV movie so the fact that it’s a big Hollywood movie with big stars must mean I’m missing something that everyone else isn’t. This book has very positive reviews all over the place online so, if it interests you, give it a go as my opinion seems to be an unpopular one. To be fair, this isn’t the type of book I normally go for so I may be slightly more negative because of that. I think I’ll just stick to horror, sci-fi & post-apocalyptic from now on.

My Rating: 2/5

*The film adaptation of The Girl On The Train comes out next week on the 5th of October if you’re interested…