William Oldroyd’s deliciously twisted thriller, Eileen, mostly succeeds because of its assured direction, superb lead performances, and in-depth examination of the titular character.
Based on the same-titled novel by Ottessa Moshfegh (2015) (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Luke Goebel), the film is set in 1960s Boston, Massachusetts, and revolves around Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie), a young 24-year-old woman who works in a juvenile correction facility and lives with her alcoholic and widowed father, Jim (Shea Wingham), a retired chief of police suffering from paranoia. Eileen’s mundane existence is shaken by the arrival of Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), the newly appointed prison psychologist. Rebecca is a confident, glamorous, and intellectual woman who takes an active interest in a case involving a young inmate named Lee Polk (Sam Nivola), who stabbed his police father multiple times and killed him in his sleep. Eileen is immediately taken with Rebecca and develops a fondness for her, and the two women gradually become acquainted and form a friendship. However, when Rebecca invites Eileen over for Christmas dinner, the evening rapidly descends into chaos, and their relationship takes an unexpected turn owing to Rebecca’s obsession with Lee Polk’s case.
The most captivating elements of the film are Eileen’s intricately crafted persona and the establishment of a world in which she is engulfed in loneliness and isolation. Director William Oldroyd and cinematographer Ari Wegner effectively capture her state of mind through visuals by isolating her in the frames at every opportunity A perfect example would be the scene in which Eileen sits across from her father and smokes a cigarette with him. Her world has shrunk to the point where she has no one to talk to or confide in because she is scorned and belittled by her colleagues at work and must take care of her alcoholic and emotionally abusive father, who is sinking into dementia at home. In one scene, while Jim and Eileen are sitting on a couch and drinking, he outlines two types of people: the ‘real ones’ who make moves and do something and the ‘other ones’ who fill up empty space. He proceeds to categorize Eileen as a member of the latter group. The camera stays on Eileen throughout Jim’s monologue; at the end of it all, she looks across at her father, and the camera captures the anguish in her eyes as a tear slides down her cheek. It’s an emotionally wrenching scene demonstrating how she can’t lean on her father for even a fraction of emotional comfort.
Nevertheless, despite the ugliness and nastiness all around Eileen, the screenplay skillfully refrains from making us feel sorry for her or her predicament. It is because something dark and unsettling lurks beneath her solitary and lifeless exterior, and the filmmakers discreetly hint at this by showing us fleeting images of her fantasizing about killing herself and her father. As a result, the slow buildup of this trait in Eileen’s personality helps in her swift character transformation in the third act.
In contrast to the more fleshed-out Eileen, the screenplay purposefully keeps Rebecca’s character enigmatic; this works in the film’s favor since it adds an air of unpredictability and keeps the audience guessing what will happen next. As the film unfolds and enters its third act, things turn darker, and the makers drop an unexpected twist that is masterfully executed as it comes out of nowhere and seeps organically through a normal conversation, catching the audience completely off guard. My only gripe with the film is its final scene, which feels vague and leads to an unsatisfactory conclusion. Without giving anything away, I felt that the screenplay could have done a better job of credibly divorcing Eileen from the situation she found herself in.
Thomasin McKenzie gives a career-best performance, flawlessly showcasing a wide range of emotions and expertly steering her character’s evolution towards the film’s end. Her chemistry with Anne Hathaway is electric (honestly, I would have loved 15-20 minutes more of them on the screen together), and her scenes with Shea Wingham—who gives another underrated performance—are among the film’s finest.
Eileen movie links: IMDB, Letterboxd
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