The location

Much of the advance press has focused on the move from the suburbs of London to the rather ritzier Westchester district outside New York. How much difference did this really make? Is The Girl on the Train a quintessentially British story, or did Tate Taylor convincingly globalise it? The class level appears to have gone up a notch, too: despite proximity to the train lines, those are some properly pricey properties.

The tone

Hawkins’s book was nothing if not brutal. Sample line: “Women are still only really valued for two things - their looks and their role as mothers. I’m not beautiful, and I can’t have kids, so what does that make me? Worthless.” How far did Taylor’s film go in toning that down, or was it still surprisingly vicious for a Hollywood thriller? Screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson has kept the shuffled first-person perspective structure: did this work? Did you miss anything about the book that didn’t make it to the movie? Or did it improve on Hawkins’s prose?

The train

It’s glitzier than the one in the novel: usually less crowded, less prone to breakdowns, fewer aggressive fellow commuters. Peter Bradshaw has questioned whether or not in real life the sight of a hot couple having kitchen sex in full view wouldn’t attract the attention of more travellers, pressing their iPhones to the glass. Did you find the swankier carriage a distraction?

Emily Blunt

Much the praise given to the movie has been reserved for its leading lady: three months pregnant at the time of the shoot, but doing desperate alky to a tee. Even Paula Hawkins has conceded she’s a bit thin and pretty to play Rachel, but Blunt does look as mottled and glassy as possible, and gives it full welly in the ranting scenes. Did she descend low enough for you? And was it the correct decision to have her keep her British accent – or ought she have gone full Yank?

The rest of the cast

Originally, Chris Evans was to play Tom, Rachel’s ex-husband, and his nice guy shtick seems a good fit for the part. Did Justin Theroux feels more eminently guessable as the baddie? Did the unmentioned age gap seem strange? Did Luke Evans and Haley Bennett convince as the neighbours? And howsabout Rebecca Ferguson’s new wife, and Édgar Ramírez’s beardy shrink?

The booze

In the book, Rachel’s drinking issues are seen as a sliding scale progressing from necking one too many premixed cans of G&T on the way home, to a compulsive purchase of a small bottle of chenin blanc from the Whistlestop in Euston. Here, she’s emptying a litre of Stoli into her water bottle – and later hitting AA. Did the amplification of actual alcoholism make a difference?

Piss artist

The film develops the idea from the book that Rachel is an aspirant artist; she’s often seen sketching, rather successfully, even when half-cut. Did that add to the adaptation? Did it help legitimise her fantasies with the sense of her artistic eye?

The corkscrew

In an interview over the weekend, Hawkins expressed surprise at being told laughter greeted the final reel moment when Rachel and Anna turn the screw into Tom’s neck. Did the movie’s version of that scene feel like a satisfying final twist, or a heavy-handed allusion to the previous boozing?