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The Girl on the Train tells the story of the titular girl, Rachel (Emily Blunt), a troubled, alcoholic, divorcée who commutes every day on the train to Manhattan, each journey is the same and she passes the same road of houses, stopping long enough to observe them. Among those that Rachel sees daily is that of a beautiful, yet mysterious couple (played by Luke Evans and Haley Bennett) who seem to live the perfect life, a marriage and life that Rachel pines for. This is made all the more difficult for Rachel given that her ex- husband Tom (Justin Theroux) and his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) live just a few houses away with their child. But through all of this snooping, Rachel sees something she shouldn't and soon becomes drawn much more into the lives of these strangers than she ever could have expected.

First off, the good: -Emily Blunt as Rachel. This is a complex and totally different performance than what we've seen Blunt deliver before. She is outstanding; damaged, conflicted, helpless and passionate, it's a role which asks a lot from Blunt but she hits the mark. It's convincingly ambiguous, credit for this must also go to Taylor whose direction never allows us to truly sympathise or side with any of these characters. Blunt's conviction makes it that much harder to support this supposed "hero" of the story.

-Haley Bennett's performance as Megan. As her story unravels, Bennett is really able to sink her teeth into the role and manipulate the image of her character and our perception of her. Megan is a devilishly devious individual and Bennett truly does the character justice giving a performance with real bite and venom.

-Luke Evans and, of course, Allison Janney. They are undoubtedly the other stand out performances from the ensemble. Evans, who plays Megan's husband Scott, plays his role with similar venom to Bennett as he offers yet another ambiguous and intriguing performance for the film. Janney may be playing a rather generic police role, she is, as always, stellar as she delivers real authority and control in her performance despite her limited material.

-Tate Taylor's overall direction. If a little rushed and sloppy in places, Taylor's direction is largely very good and he examines some interesting themes and motifs.

-For fans of the book, this is a very faithful adaptation (location change aside).

The Problems: -The characterisation is not particularly deep on backstory, so it's hard to fully "get" some of these characters.

-Its stumbles out of the blocks and takes time to really settle. There are some clunky and unnatural moments in the script both in dialogue and narration and it's a bit of a rush to get into the characters and story.

-Regardless of its solid overall build, the film tries to throw a little too much to see what sticks at first.

-The performances take a little while to settle as well, Bennett in particular seems too unnatural in her performance before her intentions with the role become clearer and she seems more comfortable.

-It could take some time to adapt to Blunt's performance also given how drastically different this is to her usual work, but nonetheless do not let yourself be deterred from her performance too quickly.

-Rebecca Ferguson isn't given much material and is rather bland. Justin Theroux as well is a little caricature like, he isn't very convincing and comes across rather bland especially when compared to the stronger performances of the film.

Despite a few early stumbles, The Girl on the Train is a dark thriller anchored by a great performance from Emily Blunt and held together by some good direction from Tate Taylor.

The case of O.J. Simpson is one that received wide scale media coverage and attention with the events being closely followed by many and is now the topic of season 1 of FX's new biographical crime drama, American Crime Story. However despite this, this show manages to remain just as gripping and haunting as the case was in real life.

The acting is across the board incredibly strong with not a weak performance among the main ensemble; Cuba Gooding Jr. and John Travolta in particular stand out. The writing is sharp, never is it overly formulaic or mundane but understandable and real, tension is built tremendously from the dialogue alone. But above all the direction is excellent, the tone is established straight from the beginning and it is crafted to such a high quality.

There is rarely a dull or wasted moment throughout, the story and pacing remains tight with no parts lacking in comparison to the soaring heights. The show, as said in the title of this review, is both evocative and powerful. The some of it's parts truly do this story justice and will more than likely stir something within you that compels you to keep watching and to examine this story in much more detail. As far as crime dramas go, this feels, to a certain extent, rather fresh and different in comparison to what has come before.

The show looks set to keep reaching new heights and it is off a magnificent start.

Wow, this is such an incredible film.

The acting is simply flawless and Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are sensational in their roles. Lenny Abrahamson's direction is great, the shots are excellent, the pace is spot on and the film's score is rousing and beautiful. The film's story, which I really don't want to spoil, is brilliant - it's so well thought through and so tight, nothing falls through the cracks, no scenes or lines are unnecessary or useless, the film has no wasted material.

Emma Donoghue's screenplay is excellent; sad, uplifting, tragic and wondrous, the film captures all of these feelings and emotions and Donoghue's script aids this immensely.

Please go out and see this film, it really deserves all the credit and money it can get. One of the best, if not THE best, films of the year.