Emily Blunt stars in a scene from the movie "The Girl on the Train." The Catholic News Service classification is O -- morally offensive.(CNS/Universal)

By Catholic News Service

Seamy suburban melodrama about the intersecting lives of an unemployed alcoholic (Emily Blunt), her ex-husband (Justin Theroux), his new wife (Rebecca Ferguson) and a couple (Haley Bennett and Luke Evans) who live in the same neighborhood.

In adapting Paula Hawkins’ best-selling novel, director Tate Taylor elicits an intense performance from Blunt, but his time-hopping tale of addiction, adultery and murder fails to live up to its artsy pretensions. Instead it has the feel of a sometimes voyeuristic anecdote told by a persistent barfly. Merely unpleasant at first, the film reaches a profoundly immoral conclusion as an act of justifiable self-defense gets mixed up with revenge at its rawest.

Skewed values, some brutal violence with gore, strong sexual content, including graphic adultery and marital lovemaking as well as full nudity, a couple of uses of profanity, pervasive rough and occasional crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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