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Eileen(2023) is a film adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh's novel of the same name, directed by William Oldroyd and starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie. The film follows Eileen, a lonely and unhappy young woman who works at a juvenile prison in a bleak Massachusetts town in 1964. Her life changes when she meets Rebecca, a glamorous and charismatic psychologist who takes an interest in her. Eileen becomes obsessed with Rebecca and gets involved in a dark and twisted plot that will test her loyalty and morality.

The film has some strengths, such as the performances of the two leads, the atmospheric cinematography, and the faithful adaptation of the source material. Hathaway and McKenzie deliver nuanced and compelling portrayals of their complex characters, showing their vulnerability, charisma, and unpredictability. The film also captures the mood and tone of the novel, creating a sense of claustrophobia, isolation, and desperation. The film does not shy away from the disturbing and shocking aspects of the story, which may appeal to fans of the book.

However, the film also has some weaknesses, such as the slow and uneven pacing, the lack of tension and suspense, and the unsatisfying and implausible ending. The film takes too long to establish the characters and the setting, and then rushes through the climax and the resolution. The film fails to generate enough interest and intrigue in the relationship between Eileen and Rebecca, and the motivations and actions of the characters are not well-explained or justified. The film also deviates from the novel in some key aspects, such as the ending, which may disappoint or confuse some viewers.

Overall, Eileen(2023) is a film that has some merit, but also some flaws. It is a faithful adaptation of a novel that may not translate well to the screen. It is a film that may appeal to some, but not to others. It is a film that tries to be a psychological thriller, but ends up being a solemn and anticlimactic oddity.

Thomasin McKenzie is quite good as the eponymous, rather timid, prison secretary who lives a rather pedestrian life watching the couples make out in the car-park, or fantasising about a quickie with one of her colleagues, before returning home to her retired cop/dipso father replete with two bottles! The arrival of new psychologist "Rebecca" (Anne Hathaway) injects a little life into her dull routine. This assertive sophisticate takes an interest in "Eileen", they go for a drink - there's even some flirting - before "Rebecca" shares a secret with her new friend that involves a young man in prison accused of the brutal murder of his father, and of just what his mother might know of the crime and it's causes. The first hour is quite intriguing but that sense of anticipation is let down by a last half hour that is really quite undercooked and the denouement, well that is just incomplete - on just about every level. The acting and writing is fine - nothing more, but I left the screening thinking that something was missing. What exactly was the point here? It's a good looking film - effort has certainly gone into the aesthetic but I'm not sure I'm really any the wiser.

Quick review: 'Eileen' is one of those films where all the pieces were there to be something great, but they just weren't quite assembled correctly. The film just comes across a little flat. There's quite a prolonged and drawn out build-up, and then the pay-off isn't quite worthy of it. I still liked the film, don't get me wrong, but I can't help feeling it could've been something more.

There are a few attempts at humour long the way, none of them really land though. And there are a couple of fake-out scenes that were truly shocking, but ultimately meant nothing unfortunately. Not a bad film, but not one I'm sure I'll remember much of a year from now. 6.5/10.

Eileen is not worth watching for the positive attributes because it exemplifies why "story" matters. Oldroyd's film has no third act, which is also a problem with the source of this adaptation. The movie takes a vicious twist. That turn primarily concerns the great Marin Ireland's (Hell or High Water) character and her son, incarcerated for murder, who is also under Hathaway's Rebecca's care.

While what transpires can be fascinating, especially when McKenzie's Eileen evolves into taking over the more dominant role, the film fails because there's no third act. This is not an argument that Eileen needs a nice little bow to wrap up her story. Far from it. The issue is that there's no closure, character redemption, or accountability.

Eileen's story, frankly, stops and falls off the metaphorical storytelling cliff. Yes, Hathaway is electric. We know McKenzie can say more with a stoic glance than most can say with a monologue. Whigham plays caustic roles like no other actor of this time in cinema .

I wish I hadn't watched this movie back-to-back with Saltburn; I would have liked more time between viewings before seeing so many similar character traits and situations. Eileen kept me interested throughout the runtime, mostly thanks to Thomasin McKenzie. A less interesting performer could have rendered this completely skippable. The movie spends a lot of time establishing what Eileen's life is like, and those details drew me in to the story. Then, Anne Hathaway's character is introduced, and the plot begins to take off. As the action continued to build, I really wanted to see where everything would end up. However, I was disappointed by the resolution; I felt like most of what we had learned about the characters became unimportant as a result of their final choices. It was hard not to feel like I had wasted my time when the credits came up because it was such an unsatisfying way to end things. It prevents me from being able to recommend this movie to anyone. I don't regret watching it, but I was definitely let down.

This movie had all the makings of a great film. Act 1 provided a satisfying introduction to our main cast and let us explore the intricacies of their personalities. It seamlessly eased into Act 2 with the twist that was greatly hinted at in both the trailer and the synopsis. Then once we get to the height of the climax the film ends. We get no Act 3 and no resolution to what went on in the whole film. Every single plot point was left open with too much room left to interpretation. I honestly got hooked onto these characters and invested in their lives and stories and from Act 1 to Act 2 I felt like the film had an average score of a 7 that turned into an 8, but when everything ended so suddenly that score in my head dropped to where it is now. This film really should have had another hour to explore the consequences of the character's actions whether they were allowed to lead their same lives or not. As for now, we as the audience will never know and that doesn't jive with this viewer.

To sum up my thoughts the movie was the start of something great. But since it cut off so suddenly I'm left to wonder what the point even was.

Eileen (Thomasina McKenzie) lives a less than fulfilling life with her alcoholic, bad tempered father and working at a young man's detention centre as a secretary. Bored with her existence she frequently fantasises about sexual experiences and killing her father or herself. One day, a new smart and glamorous prison counsellor, Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) arrives and much to Eileen's surprise and joy, she befriends her.

Granted this is a slow, not much happens thriller, but the performances by McKenzie and Hathaway and the chemistry between them works well and always keeps you intrigued as to what's coming and when it does, it does so suddenly and surprisingly. The interaction between them also moves along nicely with their characters shifting depending on the circumstances. I assume that many will find this a bit dull and I do sympathise with that view, but overall I still enjoyed the characters and the building tension around where it's heading.

Everything about it is a tease. There is no follow through of anything. No actual sex. No love story. No real relationships. No mind bending mystery. When it finally starts to pick up and give you something. It just ends. There's very little plot. It's pretty much a coming of age film. A women finding herself. The story is brutally slow for three quarters of the film.

The movie needed to give more. It felt like I watched half of a movie. There were so many filler scenes to slowly bring you to something that had so much potential for a fulfilling film, but instead of continuing with it, the movie ends. It was like they randomly ran out of money and said "hey lets just end it here because we got nothing left in the bank"

The focus and story is all over the place hinting at something that could be, but no real plot to dig your teeth into. The film needed to keep going. It finally reached an exciting idea and twist at the end, but that shouldn't have been the end. It should have been another hour and a half of finally giving us something interesting, to go with the events that take place. If they would have continued into a deep hot love story with the two women as they kept exploring the bounds of how to play with peoples minds that would have been interesting... but no.

Anne Hathaway was amazing. She stood out like a rose in a field of dead grass. But her role/script was very incomplete and there wasn't enough of her. We never really got to see who she was. And her part in the entire thing really didn't make sense with how little they had her in the movie. There wasn't a firm story for her. She was more of a tease than anything. A quick glimpse of what Eileen hoped she could be. A role model and nothing more.

Eileen: A Noir film with not just one but possibly two Femmes Fatale (depending on how you look at it). This movie strides through the genres: from lesbian romance akin to Carol to Classic Noir to Horror, even a touch of Hitchcock with a soupcon of Black Comedy. Massachusetts, early 1960s Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) is a young secretary in a juvenile prison, she's lonely, dreams of love with one of the young guards, is fascinated by an inmate Lee Polk who killed his father, the Polk family are central to the unfolding of the narrative. Eileen looks after her alcoholic ex-cop father, he's verbally abusive but some of this might be designed to drive hr away to her away, to find a life of her own. A new prison Psychologist, Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) arrives and sweeps Eileen off her feet, takes her drinking and dancing, then involves her on a strange and dangerous situation. There is a plot twist at this point that cannot be revealed here without giving too much of the storey line away. The Classic Noir tinged with Horror takes over at this point, Eileen reveals her own hidden depths of depravity. Matching or even outclassing Rebecca. Her fantasy life has always been quite violent and some of this may have have bled through to influence her real life actions. Great performances from McKenzie. Hathaway and Marin Ireland as Rita Polk, Lee's mother. Directed by William Oldroyd with a screenplay by by Ottessa Moshfegh and Luke Goebel. 8/10.

Eileen is a case of not enough happening in the first two acts and too much happening in the 3rd act. Because for most of the first 2/3rds I just couldn't figure out where the film was going. Sometimes for better but sometimes it meant that a lot of those portions dragged considerably. The 3rd act takes a pretty drastic change that I found pretty intriguing but I don't think had enough set up to fully justify. It made me wish that the script focused on a different perspective than it did in retrospect. The ending is also pretty abrupt and left me with more questions than answers. Thomasin Mackenzie and Anne Hathaway are great though and every scene that they share are when the film was at it's most captivating. It's also very well shot with a really good 60's like aesthetic. Eileen as is was a pretty intriguing ride but it's hard not to think that there's better version of this story existed in the script somewhere.

This movie made no sense.

At first I thought it had a vibe similar to Saltburn that I have just seen. With its themes of pier pressure, parental expectations and a twisty turning plot, Eileen starts with the bookish, socially awkward main character drifting in and out of reality.

Anne Hathaway comes along along and leads us to believe that their relationship will develop into something more than a colleague based relationship. Just when when we think things might develop into something the film has been foreshadowing, the movie takes a ridiculous turn into left field and further oblique turns after that.

The build up made no sense with how the movie turned out. Everything in the movie was well done up until the plot, which makes no sense. Best avoided.

This one is going to be polarizing but I enjoyed this one.

It's an interesting psychological character study of a movie with strong direction from William Oldroyd, interesting writing, and good performances from the cast members. Oldroyd's previous movie "Lady Macbeth" was really good and Oldroyd continues to provide strong direction on handling the movie's tone, narrative and the atmosphere throughout. The narrative is interesting as it has some interesting themes and concepts explored within the characters. Although certain narrative concepts weren't the greatest, as a whole, still worked for the most part. The costumes and make-up really help add the feel of the 1960s.

All the performances are great as Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie have great chemistry together. The camerawork is solid and the dialogue is well-written. The characters, while have interesting traits, I wasn't too fully emotionally connected with them and there are some pacing issues that did drag a bit.

Overall, I liked it.

This film is quite dark. Definitely leave the kiddos at home for this one. The audience I was with, found itself snickering at the absurdity of some of the events that take place though. Thomasin McKenzie does a great job playing the awkward main character who can be darkly comedic at times. I thoroughly enjoyed her New England accent in this. She will most certainly win more acting awards in her future.

Anne Hathaway is very pleasing to the eye as a blonde in this and her character is perfect for this noir film. She does not disappoint.

The movie does a fantastic job of keeping the viewer wondering what will happen. Like most other reviews have disclosed, there is a chilling twist. It sends the movie in a completely different direction that is almost guaranteed to be unpredictable to anyone seeing it for the first time.

I was engaged at first. Thomasin McKenzie does a good job and then Anne Hathaway makes a dramatic entrance and keeps the viewer's attention. The chemistry between them is good. Shea Whigham does a convincing job as the alcoholic father. Marin Ireland also has a very good scene. But the pacing is SO painfully slow. That's all right if you are slowly building tension and then deliver some big payoff but Eileen offers neither. So many needless scenes. Eileen almost looks in Rebecca's medicine cabinet but doesn't. Eileen fantasizes about standing near a lake. Why? Who cares! Eileen's character is well-drawn but Rebecca is a bit of a caricature: Part Cate Blanchett in Carol, part Nicole Kidman in To Die For. It offered just barely enough to keep me watching. Then it takes a weird twist. Then there is no payoff and no ending. There were pieces of a good movie in there but it definitely did not live up to its potential. Instead, it was a slow, boring, indulgent mess in need of editing and a final act. I consider it to have been a waste of 97 minutes.

Eileen, directed by William Oldroyd and based on Ottessa Moshfegh's debut novel, boasts two standout performances from Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway. McKenzie portrays Eileen, a young woman trapped in the bleak monotony of life in a small, unnamed Massachusetts town, while Hathaway shines as Rebecca Saint John, a newly hired psychologist at the prison where Eileen works. The chemistry between the two leads is palpable, creating an intriguing connection that serves as one of the film's strongest elements.

Rebecca, sophisticated and self-assured, serves as a stark contrast to Eileen, who is immediately drawn to her. However, despite this promising dynamic, the film struggles to maintain cohesion. What begins as a compelling family drama centered on Eileen's oppressive circumstances shifts abruptly in the final act to a sensationalist thriller that feels disconnected from its earlier tone.

This jarring genre shift proves to be the film's main weakness. By abandoning character-driven storytelling in favor of a more plot-focused climax, the narrative loses its emotional depth and coherence. The script, co-written by Moshfegh and Luke Goebel, attempts to capture the dark, cynical tone of a noir but lacks the stylistic flair or sharpness required to make it effective.

The dialogue often feels emotionally inconsistent, and the characters' irrational decisions further unbalance the story. What McKenzie and Hathaway build with subtlety and tension unravels in the final act, leaving the audience watching a group of self-destructive characters rather than a cohesive narrative.

At times, Eileen teases deeper themes, suggesting an undercurrent of unspoken romance with faint lesbian undertones that never fully materialize. Instead, the focus shifts to a plot-driven drama that, despite a compelling monologue delivered by Marin Ireland, feels contrived and sensationalist.

The lack of tonal clarity and a third act that fails to find its footing leave Eileen feeling unbalanced. While it retains a certain integrity and benefits from the strong performances of its cast, the film ultimately struggles to decide what it wants to be, squandering its narrative and emotional potential in the process.

Sigh. I'm so frustrated. Eileen is an extremely slow movie filled with mostly nothing. The plot it bare and the first hour of the movie extinguished my patience reserves. I forced myself to finish it out of sheer curiosity about how it would end. But of course, there is no ending. It just stops.

I understand that movies occasionally succeed with leaving it up to the viewer to decide what happens. But most of the time, it just feels lazy. They spend all this time and effort making a movie and cut bait during the most important part. A professional writer coming up with a great ending will be better than anything I can imagine myself.

The positives? Thomasin McKenzie is amazing. Anne Hathaway is amazing. Certain story elements later in the movie are intriguing. But it's too little, too late. I don't recommend this movie to anyone.

(1 viewing, 1/8/2024)

There's a great movie in here, but it suddenly disappears in the last act.

For the first time in her varied career Anne Hathaway nails the acting thing. She totally transforms herself into a mysterious vixen, channeling an angular version of Marilyn Monroe as she disrupts a small, bleak New England town in the repressed sixties. All glam, cigarettes and high heels, Rebecca is the new psychologist at the local juvie detention centre, where she befriends fellow worker, the mousy Eileen.

The film moves smartly and methodically forward as the ladies form an unlikely bond, teasing Eileen with disruption of her mundane, servile, lonely existance, and threatens to veer into dangerous territory. Soon enough there's inappropriate dancing at a local watering hole that shocks the locals, and who knows where all of this is heading?

Indeed. The film veers sharply away from breaking old timey taboos and goes completely off the rails. Rebecca and Eileen are not what they seem, hell, they don't know what they are, and that is part of the thrill and repulsion of this crazy ending.

Not for everyone, but certainly unforgettable, stylish and worth it for the two leads.

HipCRANK.

No character development.

Hardly able to make out what Eileen is saying a lot of the time.... poor accent and sound.

There is a slight revelation near the final 3rd but the way this is handled is awful.

The film essentially finishes just when it starts to get better and ends with nothing resolved.

Shame because the 2 lead actresses are much better than this drvel.

A very poor film that was a total waste of time.

Cleaning mould from my sons bedroom the following day held more interest than this nonsense.

I accidentally stood on a nail that went through my foot..... I realised although painful it was not as horrific as this stinker of a film.

"Eileen" focuses on the titular lead character (Thomasin McKenzie), a young woman in 1960s Massachusetts. Her life is less than ideal: she is sexually repressed, professionally stifled in her job as an administrative worker in a young men's prison, and has to deal with her widowed and neurotic alcoholic father (Shea Whigham) at home. Eileen's downbeat existence is upheaved, however, by the arrival of Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), a glamorous and charismatic psychiatrist who is hired at the prison. The two women's encounters with one another eventually lead down a dark path.

Based on the novel of the same name by Ottessa Moshfegh (who co-wrote the screenplay), "Eileen" is immediately striking simply on a visual level, as every frame of it is steeped in atmosphere. The film is bathed in a wave of rusty sepias and cool blues, the only real color popping up in the form of Christmas lights or Thomasin Mackenzie's bright red lipstick. The time period and place in which it is set (1960s New England) is also demonstrated impeccably. This works greatly to the film's advantage, given that its narrative arc is quite sparsely drawn (and I don't mean that as a demerit)--simply that the story is lean and succinct.

The first two acts largely work to establish Eileen's loneliness and depressing interpersonal dynamics with her father, with Hathaway's character jutting in and unknowingly shaking up Eileen's humdrum routine. It is at times difficult to discern where the story is exactly going; there are hints of a budding lesbian love affair, though the character perspectives and their foggy motives more or less put the brakes on this avenue (at least for one of them). There is a dark twist in the last act that feels somewhat arbitrary, though it functions in terms of driving the timid Eileen to take drastic actions for once in her life (for better or for worse). If nothing else, the climax of the film is disturbing.

While I feel that the film comes across as slightly irresolute in terms of character motives and their relationship to the events that transpire in the climax, what makes it all ultimately work is the well-written dialogue paired with McKenzie and Hathaway's performances. McKenzie excels in her portrayal of the emotionally downtrodden protagonist, while Hathaway goes full-throttle (bordering on camp) as the Harvard-educated, freewheeling Rebecca, a woman with her own unnamed demons. Shea Whigham also gives a memorable performance as Eileen's alcoholic ex-cop father.

While I think the screenplay leaves behind a few loose ends in the wake of arbitrary events and decisions, I suppose it is also worth noting that these loose ends, arbitrary events, and decisions are also sometimes demonstrative of life itself. The film effectively depicts just how the chemistry between two humans can quickly spiral into a grim and dangerous place, with neither party foreseeing it. The fact that it is visually stunning and robustly acted make it worth viewing. 8/10.

You have a fertile and quite vivid way of dreaming, it's a way to pass the time thinking and scheming, after all home life is bad, with an alcoholic dad, who you keep topped to the brim, showing well-meaning. At the prison where you work starts a new Doctor, called Rebecca it's soon clear you really want her, so you swoon in mother's clothes, as she's never growing old, perhaps your visits and your haunts, will be no longer. But this woman is not all you think she is, she has surprises nestled underneath her lid, quite spontaneous, unscripted - you may feel somewhat conflicted, as the credits start to role, you might just quiz.

Wonderful performances.

Rarely have I seen a film as implausible, unfocused and meandering as this second feature outing from director William Oldroyd. After an impressive debut with "Lady Macbeth" (2016), the filmmaker has stumbled seriously in this latest effort, a supposed psychological mystery/thriller that never finds traction and yet somehow manages to go wildly off the rails in the final act. This cinematic misfire examines the relationship that develops between two women who work at a young men's prison in 1960s small town Massachusetts. Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) is a reserved, awkward, often-bullied, sexually repressed administrative assistant, and Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) is the facility's newly hired, sophisticated, worldly, Harvard-educated psychologist. They quickly strike up a close yet somewhat unlikely bond with less-than-subtle (but apparently never-consummated) sexual overtones, a story thread that seems to be heading somewhere but never does. In large part that's because the protagonists end up becoming involved in a hare-brained scheme worthy of Lucy and Ethel, only with significant implications, a scenario that comes out of left field and sends the narrative into serious, unexplained head-scratching territory. While the picture features a fine production design, a palette of creative cinematography, and capable Independent Spirit Award-nominated supporting performances by Hathaway and Marin Ireland, there's not much else here that's engaging, riveting or worthwhile, elements essential to a good mystery/thriller offering. Whatever the filmmaker was going for here obviously never comes to fruition, thanks to either its poorly composed script or its mishandled execution (or a combination thereof). Indeed, this is one of those films where virtually the entire project truly would have been better off left on the cutting room floor.

This movie is about a homely young woman named Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) who works at a prison, takes care of her alcoholic father (Shea Whigham) and apparently is a voyeur in her free time. She does basically the same thing everyday and goes unnoticed by most everyone until one day, the lovely Dr. Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) shows up like a flower in dirt pile. She takes an interest in Eileen unlike (apparently) anyone else in her life ever has.

I wasn't sure where this Movie was going to go, Horror, psychological thriller, lesbian love? The short answer is that I don't know what this movie wanted to be or what the director wanted the movie to be. I'm not all about labels, but this movie needed something to work toward as that it was somewhere in the middle of genres and made it seem unfinished and unrealized as a result. Movies should have a beginning, middle and end that resolves nicely and a little bit of magic. This movie starts in the middle of 2 or 3 different stories and simply stops without an ending which is why I couldn't give it too high of a score.

Should you watch this movie, sure, why not. The actors all do a great job with a disjointed story. There's kind of a cool twist that made me sit up as that the movie hadn't really captured me up until that point.