EILEEN – Review

Finally, we’re entering into the first weekend of the final month of 2023. So naturally many of the films hitting the multiplex have the big holiday at the end of December as a setting or backdrop. Of course, they’re all upbeat celebrations full of family togetherness. Well, not always as proven a few weeks ago with the release of one of the year’s best films, THE HOLDOVERS. It’s a dark comedy centering on a split family ignoring a son. So indeed it is a bit dark, compared to this weekend’s flick, which is nearly pitch-black, closer to a film noir than comedy. And it’s a tragic drama as we observe the dismal life of a young woman named EILEEN.

Right at the start of this tale, we’re introduced to Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie), a lonely woman in her twenties living in the Boston area around sixty years ago. We first see her silently watching amorous couples in a “lover’s lane” from her wheezing ancient auto, From there she begins her daily routine, starting her “9 to 5” job as a secretary at the local boys’ detention center (and enduring loads of verbal abuse from her co-workers). Luckily she can fantasize about a hunky guard. From there she returns to the squalid shanty she shares with her boozing papa Jim (Shea Whigham), former police chief of the village. Of course, he wakes from his drunken stupor long enough to toss off some insults and bemoan the loss of his wife, Eileen’s mother. At the day’s end, she trudges up to the attic, enjoys some candy (she sucks away the coating and spits the rest out), and passes out on a flimsy cot. The alarm barely rouses her at dawn, giving her just enough time to prepare breakfast for Dad (he sticks to his bottle as he belittles her), and hope that the battered car will get her to work. Ah. but today is different. A new therapist has arrived, the blonde, sophisticated Dr. Rebecca (Anne Hathaway). After all the welcoming hoopla is done, Eileen is stunned when the sultry doc expresses interest in her life. Eventually, the two share a lunch break and even meet for a post-work cocktail at the local “watering hole”. But aside from Eileen, Dr. Rebecca is focused on one “juvie” in particular, Lee Polk (Sam Nivola), who is there after murdering his father. But will her work turn into an obsession, leading to more time “after hours” with her new friend? And could this “relationship” lead to true “freedom” for Eileen?

The title role marks another interesting performance by one of our most promising young screen actresses. Since arriving just over five years ago with her dazzling debut in LEAVE NO TRACE, McKenzie has given us several memorable characters, always smart, but often soft-spoken. The latter trait is taken to extremes by her work as the painfully shy, often “blending into the woodwork” Eileen, eyes downward as disdain is heaped upon her. She’s slowly suffocating from a yearning for human connection in order to breathe. And when that happens, McKenzie alters her facial expressions and body language to convey Eileen’s “blooming”, bursting out of that “shell”. As the instigator of that change, Hathaway ignites the dull drab settings in an interesting twist on the iconic icy “cool blondes” that Hitchcock adored. Rebecca projects an aloof superiority to those at work, so it’s a surprise when she “zeroes in” on the ignored office “drone”. Is it a seduction, perhaps even a bit of “grooming” (comparisons to Cate Blanchett as CAROL arise), or is she “playing” with Eileen, much like a cat “toying” with a mouse before the final “pounce”? It’s a splendid departure from her usual “likable” roles and Ms. Hathaway truly rises to the challenge. Rounding out the film’s “trifecta” is the always engaging Whigham who somehow is able to inject some level of sad humanity into the blustery drunkard who has basically “checked out’ of life, save for spewing venom at his daughter, and only leaving his hellish abode to stagger the street, waving his pistol while ranting about the non-Catholic “interlopers” (“Them Lutherans!”). Whigham is often a “rough around the edges” charmer, but this punishing papa adds more fuel to Eileen’s interest in her new (maybe more than) friend.

With his second feature film (hard to believe it’s been seven years since LADY MACBETH), director William Oldroyd creates a dark grimy psychological character study, working from the screenplay adaptation of Otessa Moshfegh’s novel by her and Luke Goebel. But much like his last film Oldroyd again provides us with an offbeat central woman at the story’s core, though there’s also a supporting player to empower and transform her. Plus he’s adept at throwing us a “curve” since it appears to be a somber look at some in deep emotional stress, perhaps with a real “sexual panic”, then veers into an erotic “game”, but diving into an exploration of guilt and justice (and much like a parking garage, nothing “nice” ever happens in basement settings of a movie). And though it’s set in the mid-1960s, there’s no nostalgic “glow” to be seen, rather it’s a dirty stale smoky haze with ugly dangerous cars and stifling attire. This story is full of interesting heroines and strong performances, but the last moments of the third act feel rushed and vague. Of course, we don’t always need to know the exact futures of the leads, but it just seems as though too many threads are left to dangle and fray in that cold Boston breeze. Fortunately, this uneasy finale doesn’t distract from a powerful monologue in that basement (closer to the bowels of Hell) and from the superb actresses involved who invest us in the unusual “bond” between Rebecca and EILEEN.

2.5 Out of 4

EILEEN is now playing in select theatres