Eileen (15, 97 mins)
Verdict: Atmospheric period thriller
Some names are inherently more glamorous than others. Eileen suggests (if only to me) humility, reserve and anonymity, despite the best efforts of Dexy’s Midnight Runners all those years ago and despite the formidable Dame Eileen Atkins.
The same cannot be said for Rebecca. There is mystery, danger and glamor in the name, which may have something to do with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film of the same name, so powerfully adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s novel.
In any case, Eileen – the eponymous character in William Oldroyd’s carefully constructed psychological thriller – is a put-upon, frumpy, rather repressed young woman.
Played wonderfully by Thomasin McKenzie, she lives with her emotionally abusive father and works in the office of a local juvenile detention center, where, when not ignored, she is routinely patronized by her older colleagues.
But Eileen’s life and opportunities change when she sees Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), the institution’s new psychologist. From the moment she confidently steps out of her shiny red sports car, wearing her peroxidized hair just like Marilyn Monroe, Rebecca feels a sexual attraction like the whiff of an expensive perfume.
Eileen, played wonderfully by Thomasin McKenzie, lives with her emotionally abusive father and works in the office of a local juvenile detention center
But Eileen’s life and opportunities change when she sees Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), the institution’s new psychologist
From the moment she confidently steps out of her shiny red sports car, wearing her peroxidized hair just like Marilyn Monroe, Rebecca feels a sexual attraction like the whiff of an expensive perfume
“She may look good, but I assure you that she is very smart,” the prison director says to his employees.
This casual sexism – note the “but” – is deeply rooted.
The setting is a small town in Massachusetts in the 1960s. Lyndon Johnson has succeeded the assassinated John F. Kennedy in the White House, but there are no signs of social unrest comparable to the political one, at least not in this neck of the woods.
Everyone knows their place, especially Eileen, although we know she has a more exciting inner life because we are privy to her over-the-top fantasies, some sexual, some violent.
After the beguiling Rebecca takes a liking to her – “You have a strange face: it’s simple but fascinating” – Eileen’s self-esteem gradually begins to awaken, like tightly closed petals opening in the sunlight.
She loses a little less of her bond with her father, a self-pitying, alcoholic ex-cop played superbly by Shea Whigham, and begins searching through her dead mother’s wardrobe for clothes that might cause a stir. Especially Rebecca’s head.
As they dance together in a bar one evening, the older woman’s affection for Eileen begins to imply the almost unthinkable: that the relationship leads inexorably to the bedroom. Eileen, for her part, is really excited.
Hathaway, a movie star whose rom-com past sometimes denies her the stature she deserves as a truly significant actress, is superb in the role of the cultured Rebecca.
But it’s the talented young New Zealander McKenzie who delivers the truly standout performance in this film.
I thought she was wonderful in Last Night In Soho (2021), making the most of a role that required her to be otherworldly and impressionable. Her character in Eileen isn’t that different, but slowly and tantalizingly it becomes clear that she’s not nearly as guileless as she seems.
Hathaway, a movie star whose rom-com past sometimes denies her the stature she deserves as a truly significant actress, is superb in the role of the cultured Rebecca
As they dance together in a bar one evening, the older woman’s affection for Eileen begins to imply the almost unthinkable: that the relationship leads inexorably to the bedroom
Everyone knows their place, especially Eileen, although we know she has a more exciting inner life because we are privy to her over-the-top fantasies
Oldroyd explored similar territory in his electrifying debut film “Lady Macbeth” (2016), about a young woman in Victorian England who, forced into a desperately unhappy marriage, is brave enough to break free from her societal straitjacket.
This was based on a Russian novel and this film (atmospherically shot by the same cameraman, Ari Wegner) also has literary roots, namely in the novel of the same name by Ottessa Moshfegh.
Moshfegh, along with her husband Luke Goebel, adapted the script themselves, and whether she and Oldroyd intended it or not, the story is clearly reminiscent of the stories of Patricia Highsmith and also Alfred Hitchcock. Because this is about more than just an intense relationship between two women.
In prison, Rebecca becomes increasingly concerned with the case of a teenager, Leo (played by Sam Nivola, the son of Emily Mortimer), who stabbed his father.
She is determined to learn more about his motivations and the family circumstances that led to him committing the murder while his father lay in bed next to his mother (Marin Ireland).
In ways I can’t reveal here, Rebecca’s fixation reveals that she is much more vulnerable than she appears, and Eileen much stronger. Which of course just shows how nonsense it is to attribute character traits to a name.