Eileen
Anne Hathaway shines in this gorgeous neo-noir
Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie heat up the dance floor in William Oldroyd's Eileen.
There’s not a lot of joy in Eileen Dunlop’s (Thomasin McKenzie) life. Her mother is dead, her father is a drunken lout who terrorizes the neighborhood by waving his service weapon around, and her sister is MIA after fleeing her father. Now, Eileen is trapped in a house with a vicious drunk, working a dead-end job at a local juvenile detention center, and trudging through a bleak and unforgiving New England winter.
Oh, and her car doesn’t have heat, either.
Eileen’s only respite is her imagination. She has vivid and often violent fantasies that help her deal with her grim existence. It looks like she’ll live a life of quiet, miserable obscurity just like her father and her mother before her.
Then Rebecca shows up.
A newly hired Harvard psychologist, Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) is a blonde bombshell in the beige Formica world of the prison. She’s assertive with the male administrators, stylish, and breezes into every room like she owns the place.
Eileen is immediately smitten. Rebecca, in turn, sees a protégé. Someone she can easily mold and influence as she smokes cigarettes theatrically. Will Rebecca bring Eileen out of her shell? And what creature will emerge if she does?
Half noir, half Douglas Sirk melodrama, Eileen is more of a vibe than a movie. The plot is…thin, but there’s style for days and some truly great performances from Hathaway and McKenzie. Adapted from a novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, the film eliminates some of Eileen’s interiority, which makes her character inscrutable and a little more unpredictable on screen.
Though the plot is minimalist, director William Oldroyd insinuates quite a bit. If you’re an active viewer, you’ll be able to glean much about the relationships between the characters and their backgrounds. This means Eileen probably won’t be that rewarding if you’re passively scrolling on your phone while watching.
Oldroyd also meticulously crafts the look of the film. He and cinematographer Ari Wegner shift the film as Eileen’s world shifts. At first, we’re in the blinding light and cold of New England in the dead of winter, where everything surface seems washed out and overexposed. But as Rebecca infiltrates Eileen’s world, the shadows get richer and more prevalent, morphing the film into a sumptuous noir with deep red tones. It’s an impressive amount of artistry that enhances the quietly disturbing mood of the movie.
The mood also informs the performances of the two leading ladies. McKenzie is a mousy creature at the beginning of the film, awkward and odd, but always seemingly in the background. When Rebecca encourages her to come out of her shell, McKenzie evolves Eileen’s quiet introversion into something steelier and more interesting. Eileen isn’t so much changed, as given permission to act out the thoughts in her head.
As the catalyst and femme fatale of the piece, Hathaway is having the time of her life. Her Rebecca has the vampy toughness of Jean Harlow — with the hair to match. Rebecca is a woman who wants to make an impression, and she does wherever she goes. Wegner keeps a halo of light around Rebecca in every scene, naturally drawing your eye. But it’s Hathaway’s va-va-voom performance that really makes the character, and the movie itself, work. She makes a meal of every scene she’s in, it’s easy to see why Eileen is immediately enamored with her.
While Eileen might need a meatier script to help bolster the exceptional mood set by the filmmakers, the two strong lead performances help keep it entertaining. If you’re looking for a psychosexual thriller with plenty of atmosphere, Eileen is just the ticket.
Verdict: Moody and beautifully acted, Eileen is a thrilling watch for noir fans.
Eileen is rated R and available in theaters Dec. 8.
