Eileen

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.

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.

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.

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 .