Eileen is the latest mind-bending drama from director William Oldroyd, the creative force behind 2016’s Lady Macbeth. This time, Oldroyd has adapted a script from Ottessa Moshfegh’s critically acclaimed novel of the same name, bringing to life a suspenseful story of desire and darkness set in 1960s New England.
Leading the film is emerging indie star Thomasin McKenzie as the shy secretary Eileen, along with the formidable Anne Hathaway playing a charismatic prison psychologist named Rebecca. When Rebecca comes into Eileen’s life, what begins as an alluring friendship sets off a sinister chain of events that lays bare unsettling truths.
Eileen is a visually stunning thriller brimming with standout performances, especially from McKenzie and Hathaway. The film casts an intoxicating spell – immersing viewers in moral ambiguity where victims and villains are impossible to distinguish. Love it or hate it, Eileen promises to get audiences talking with its unflinching descent into the human psyche’s most twisted depths.
An Unlikely Bond Sets Off a Downward Spiral
Eileen unfolds in the frigid winter of 1964, in a gloomy Massachusetts beach town. Our protagonist Eileen is a timid 24-year-old who left college to care for her now-deceased mother. Now, Eileen deals with her alcoholic father’s verbal abuse while working an unfulfilling job as a prison secretary.
Eileen’s dreary routine changes with the arrival of Rebecca Saint John – a smart, poised psychologist who takes a job counseling inmates. Rebecca draws eyes wherever she goes, including from the instantly smitten Eileen. As two of the only women working there, Eileen and Rebecca quickly bond over their status as underestimated outsiders.
An intrigued Rebecca soon brings withdrawn Eileen out of her shell, cementing their friendship over drinks and dances at a local dive bar. Eileen finds herself deeply influenced by Rebecca’s glamorous style and bold confidence. When Rebecca later invites Eileen to her home on Christmas Eve, the seeds of romance seem to sprout.
Yet Rebecca shocks Eileen by revealing a disturbing secret instead. She pulls Eileen into covering up her “rash move” – a bewildering crime that puts both women in jeopardy. While initially hesitant, eager-to-please Eileen gets roped further into Rebecca’s downward spiral. Soon, the film’s noir-ish tension reaches a boiling point as the two make increasingly desperate and dangerous choices. Their once-heartwarming connection curdles into something far more toxic than either expected – blurring the lines between victim and villain.
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McKenzie and Hathaway Captivate as an Unlikely, Doomed Duo
Leading lady Thomasin McKenzie draws praise for her portrayal of the timid yet increasingly cunning Eileen. With her doe eyes and cardigan-clad frame, McKenzie nails Eileen’s buttoned-up repression on the surface. Yet she deftly unfurls a simmering inner dark side, unveiling new layers of Eileen’s complex psyche as the film progresses.
Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway is resplendent as the magnetic Rebecca, rocking pencil skirts and blonde locks. Hathaway sinks her teeth into the intrigue surrounding Rebecca, keeping viewers guessing about her motivations with sly winks and expertly timed revelations. With irresistible charisma, she crafts an intoxicating femme fatale – both empowered boss and vulnerable anti-hero.
Eileen’s father is played by the always-dependable Shea Whigham, who’s honed a niche portraying gruff working-class men. As expected, Whigham turns in an authentic performance as Eileen’s mean drunk dad, hurling creatively cruel insults that cut deep. Yet in his rare moments of vulnerability, Whigham shows the wounded man beneath the drunken rage.
Supporting stars Siobhan Fallon Hogan and Marin Ireland also stand out in key scenes. Hogan delivers deliciously icy contempt as Eileen’s prison co-worker, while Ireland brings the film’s climax to a shattering halt with her raw, real monologue as the disturbed mother of an inmate.
Crafting An Atmospheric Slow Burn
At the helm is director William Oldroyd, hot off his chilling 2016 debut Lady Macbeth. With Eileen, Oldroyd re-teams with many of his Lady Macbeth collaborators – including screenwriter Alice Birch and cinematographer Ari Wegner – to vividly recreate Ottessa Moshfegh’s literary vision.
While adapting Moshfegh’s twisty plot, Oldroyd maintains her trademark tone: dryly funny yet unsettlingly stark. He effectively ratchets up tension through ominous visual motifs, keeping viewers on edge for the film’s jolting climactic act. When the graphic violence and sexuality inherent to Moshfegh’s writing spills onto screen, Oldroyd handles the provocative material with stylish assuredness.
Balancing Oldroyd’s brooding aesthetic is the propulsive screenplay from novelist Moshfegh and author Luke Goebel. Moshfegh translates her acclaimed novel to the screen through authentic dialogue and fleshed-out lead female characters. Meanwhile, Goebel contributes brisk pacing peppered with surreal segues into Eileen’s wandering mind. The script deftly passes the baton once Rebecca enters, morphing from subtle character study to full-throttle psychological thriller.
This gripping atmosphere manifests through Ari Wegner’s shadowy cinematography and Richard Reed Parry’s unnerving score. Wegner spotlights the frosty Massachusetts winter as both chillingly beautiful and oppressive, the 4:3 aspect ratio closing characters into an inescapable abyss. Parry’s erratic orchestral crescendos accent critical moments, building the score to a fever pitch mirroring his protagonists’ mental states. This technical mastery will have audiencestoggled to the edge of their seats.
An Oppressive Winter Wonderland
Much praise goes to cinematographer Ari Wegner for crafting Eileen’s transportive period atmosphere. Wegner previously lensed Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth and delivers another knockout job here. Shooting in a vintage 4:3 ratio, she envelops the film in inky shadows, evoking film noir classics through striking black and white contrasts.
Populating this chiaroscuro backdrop is a wintry environment alternating between serenely beautiful and oppressively bleak. Snow-capped beaches and frosted window panes glow in moonlight, contrasted by bare trees and icy roads conveying the season’s merciless brutality. Wegner harnesses familiar holiday aesthetics, then subverts them with characters trapped in claustrophobic frames boxed by dark edges – visually manifesting their descent into desperation.
Wegner dynamically charts the complicated relationship between Eileen and Rebecca. Intimate scenes are saturated in sensual red lighting or candlelight ambience, the camera languidly panning as if in a trance. But following their ill-fated Christmas Eve together, calculating low angle shots and agitated zooms reflect the alliance’s dissolution into distrust.
The exterior locations seamlessly transport us into 1960s small town America thanks to production designer Craig Lathrop. Through vintage vehicles and mid-century architecture, Lathrop constructs a working class port town frozen in time yet chilled by the modern world’s encroaching transformations.
The era’s changing social mores also emerge via Olga Mill’s costumes. We first meet mousy Eileen drowned in frumpy wool layers reflecting her boyish disguise. But in Rebecca’s figure-hugging dresses, bold makeup, and playful femininity – we see glimpses of the new generation’s increasing liberation that will soon sweep the nation.
Exploring Society’s Shadows
On the surface, Eileen joins films like Carol in portraying a budding connection between women in a less progressive cultural moment. Sensually filmed dances and coy banter bait the audience into anticipating a traditional illicit romance.
Yet the story slyly questions assumptions about gender and power dynamics before plunging into deeper moral ambiguity. Rebecca weaponizes stereotypical femininity to manipulate people and situations to her advantage. Meanwhile, meek Eileen discovers her long-dormant savage side once given a taste of freedom. Rather than simply opposing societal oppression, both women find liberation through defying ethical norms – proving the alluring “darkness within human nature” transcends gender.
Through this gender-bending complexity, the film examines how toxicity and trauma infect even human intimacy. Eileen and Rebecca bond through shared contempt for the men controlling their workplace, alongside mutual loneliness and family trauma. Their chemistry forms from recognizing the other’s unhealed wounds. Yet instead of healing each other, they spiral downwards by enabling one another’s worst instincts.
Eileen demonstrates how easily victims transform into villains when social constraints evaporate. By the closing act, responsibility blurs between the two leads as horrific crimes unfold. Audiences are left wrestling with the boundaries between morality and immorality, violence and self-defense, complicity and survival. These questions resonate today as society continues re-examining issues of gender roles, power dynamics, and accountability.
A Flawed Yet Fascinating Descent Into Darkness
While the plot may fizzle towards the finale, Eileen remains a riveting showcase for Ottessa Moshfegh’s literary vision through William Oldroyd’s artful direction. Boundary-pushing performances from Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway deliver a lucid character study – morphing into a provocative, genre-bending psychological thriller centered on the complexity of female relationships and morality.
Backed by transportive visuals and a haunting score, Eileen casts an entrancing ambience from opening frame to its unnerving climax. For fans of slow-burning dramas unafraid to explore the darker depths of human nature, it proves a worthwhile descent. There’s ample room for script improvement, but the film cements Moshfegh as an exciting literary voice ripe for cinematic reinterpretation.
It also heralds rising stars in both McKenzie and Oldroyd. After breaking out in 2018’s Leave No Trace, indie darling McKenzie continues proving her versatility in complex lead roles. Oldroyd re-establishes his audacious, atmospheric vision hinting at a singular directing career ahead. With two captivating character-driven thrillers now under his belt, his next unpredictable project will undoubtedly entice cinema lovers.
While imperfect, Eileen delivers enough glimmers of brilliance to leave a haunting impression. Like peeking behind a curtain you can’t quite close, the film lures you into its web – then confronts with truths you may wish stayed hidden.
The Review
Eileen
Despite an uneven finale, Eileen ensnares as a chilling slow-burn showcase of rising talent on both sides of the camera. Between William Oldroyd's monochromatic visions of splintering psyches and knockout performances from Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway, the film casts a dark spell that lingers in your mind long after the credits roll.
PROS
- Mesmerizing lead performances from Thomasin McKenzie and especially Anne Hathaway
- William Oldroyd's tense and atmospheric direction
- Gorgeous cinematography from Ari Wegner that transports viewers into a bleak 1960s winter
- Ottessa Moshfegh's darkly funny, matter-of-fact tone translated effectively to the screenplay
- Explores provocative themes around gender roles, sexuality, and the human psyche
- Features strong supporting turns from Shea Whigham and Marin Ireland
CONS
- Uneven pacing and unsatisfying plot turns in the third act
- McKenzie's accent is shaky at times
- The queer themes and relationships lack depth compared to films like Carol
- Falls short of capturing the compelling inner monologues of Moshfegh's writing
- The crime plot feels incongruous with the initial mood and character focus
