Eileen

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.

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 .

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.

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.

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.