Eileen

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.

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.

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 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.