I enjoyed reading Paula Hawkins’ best-selling novel “The Girl on the Train,” even if I did catch myself rolling my eyes at some of the story’s more preposterous moments. I somehow managed to push those elements aside and concentrate instead on the book’s pulpy murder mystery and intriguing narrator.

That’s not so easy to do in the movie that hits theaters this weekend. The movie version of the characters comes across as petty and their actions frequently strain credulity. Without the book’s interior monologues giving us a peak into their hearts, the characters and the story simply fall apart.

That story is the tale of a young woman named Rachel (Emily Blunt) who rides the train each day as a cover for having lost her job because of her alcoholism following her divorce from Tom (Justin Theroux). The train passes Rachel’s old house, so she gets daily glimpses into the life she once had with Tom and his new wife (Rebecca Ferguson). She also gets to peek into the lives of beautiful young couple (Haley Bennett and Luke Evans).

For some reason, Rachael has built up a romanticized fantasy around this couple, so it comes as quite a shock when the wife goes missing and the police suspect foul play. Rachael has a nagging suspicion that she might know something about the murder, but she can’t quite remember anything due to her alcoholic blackouts.

The rest of the movie is a murder mystery where the amateur detective is a very unreliable narrator. Rachel’s obsession and personal vices lead her toward the murderer, but they also threaten to derail the official police investigation.

Blunt is very good in the difficult central role, making the audience care about Rachel despite her many flaws. The rest of the cast is also solid, if mostly unremarkable. Allison Janney is the exception here, playing the police detective who adds a jolt of energy into the film every time she appears.

Indeed, the entire film is well made, but the story doesn’t quite work when committed to film. A lot of the characters’ actions that were excusable in the book ring false when seen on the screen. It turns out the that audience needs the book’s constant inner monologues to explain the character’s motivations, even if they turn out to be delusional.

That’s not to say that the film doesn’t have its pulpy appeal. This is a fast-paced page-turner of a movie, filled with melodramatics, some soft-core sex appeal and plenty of bloody peril. “The Girl on the Train” might very well be a guilty pleasure for many, and fans of the book might enjoy seeing the characters up on the screen, but the movie is only a pale imitation of Hawkins’ novel.

Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published weekly in “The Port Arthur News” and seen weekly on KFDM and KBTV. Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@sbgtv.com.com.