Eileen

December 1st, 2023

MOVIE: EILEEN

STARRING: THOMASIN MCKENZIE, ANNE HATHAWAY, SHEA WHIGHAM, MARIN IRELAND

DIRECTED BY: WILLIAM OLDROYD

AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 4 STARS (Out of 4)

William Oldroyd’s Eileen never leaves your mind. It certainly hasn’t left mine from Fantastic Fest in September. The acting, the settings, the cinematography, the characters, the drama, and a dynamite ending; And yet there is still a lot to unpack. It takes place during a cold 1960s Boston, where the roads are caked in snow, and people are as broken as a shattered sheet of ice. What one instantly picks up is that this is a story filled with raw, human emotion, the kind you can touch. You can feel a sense of longing and sadness, but you keep going, and eventually, Eileen reveals itself to be one of the best movies of 2023.

Taken from Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel of the same name, Eileen is about the title character, played by Thomasin McKenzie, who works in a prison in Boston. Her job is to check in on those who visit prisoners in the facility. It’s a secure, hardened place, where the former warden is now retiring, and being replaced by a woman named Rebecca (Anne Hathaway). But this is not any woman. Rebecca arrives like a blazing beam of light, someone who hopes to change the way the inmates are treated, and one of the few people that can see Eileen. I mean truly see her. Not just glance as you walk past, but understand that there is a deeper, passionate soul behind her doe-eyed approach. They spark a courting that flirts between friendship and romance.

Right off the bat, what makes Eileen the spectacular production it is should be credited to the performance by Hathaway. Oscar-worthy, for sure, but it’s also some of her greatest work yet, playing a character with a radiating exterior to go along with the mystery of who she is. Her charm captures Eileen’s eye and she develops a crush. When Rebecca asks her coworker to go out for a drink, we see a spark and a budding romance for a woman who has longed for a connection with others. Eileen is pushing against the conservative nature of Boston, the 1960s, and a world that never allows a person to be oneself.

The other dynamic is Eileen’s home life, where she cares for her alcoholic father (played excellently by Shea Whigham), who expresses his misery through a slur and replaces his late wife’s existence with that of his daughter. She provides him with a bottle of booze because it keeps things momentarily quiet. She’ll cook him a meal because she hasn’t any friends to go out with. Until Rebecca’s arrival, Eileen was seen as nobody, a quiet mouse that could be told what to do, working in a place soaked in misery. Oldroyd and the screenplay by Luke Goebel have us fully engaged with Eileen, sensing the same attraction that she has for Rebecca, hoping that she’ll find a way out of this isolation.

Everything else is dynamically crafted. It’s reminiscent of Todd Haynes Carol, Ammonite, or more recently Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The duality between Rebecca’s life and Eileen’s is palpable. The hair, the costumes, the lighting, and the performance are all in step with the time and the tale. The ending is revealing, shocking, and rewarding for those who wait. Eileen is a masterwork, with the shimmering presence of Anne Hathaway, and the tantalizing anticipation of new love. Easily one of my favorites of 2023.

EILEEN IS PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS ON FRIDAY DECEMBER 1ST, 2023.

4 STARS

Written by: Leo Brady
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