‘Eileen’ Review – The Perfect Balance Of Mysteriousness, Darkness And Electrifying Performances [LFF 2023]

This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.

What dictates who you become: Nature, nurture, or a combination of both? It’s been a point of discussion for ages. According to many, pre-wiring, genetics, and biology are the dominating influences, while others think the impact of external factors such as life experiences is much more significant. In the case of Eileen, the lead character of the same-named film by William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth), it’s undoubtedly nurture, but can you be this sneakily violent if you’re not born with it?

Oldroyd is not afraid to show you the dark world of Eileen – a small-town girl who seems sweet and innocent – right from the start. Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) gets aroused by seeing people having sex in public. She also fantasises about killing her drunk and abusive father (Shea Whigham). On top of that, she works in a prison as a secretary and frisker. Killers, doom, and gloom surrounding her certainly don’t help her become happier. On the contrary, even more violent thoughts fill her mind. She spies on inmates, dreams of having steamy sex with the stern prison guard, and spends her breaks masturbating.

It seems that there’s light and salvation at the end of the tunnel for Eileen as the elegant and clever psychiatrist Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) comes to work at her prison. Rebecca doesn’t only take an interest in her patients but also in Eileen. While the women come from totally different backgrounds, they strike up a friendship quite quickly. There are mixed signals about what they mean to each other, and during those moments, the movie will remind you of Carol. The difference with the Todd Haynes film is that it was about the two leading ladies coming together to bring some light into the gloomy world. This is about two mysterious and cruel women bringing much more darkness into a violent society. The closer they become, the more dangerous their friendship becomes, with deadly and catastrophic consequences to follow.

If you think writer Luke Goebel’s (Causeway) mind is as dark as Eileen’s, don’t worry. He didn’t write the screenplay on his own. He created it with Ottessa Moshfegh (Causeway), whose novel this work is based on. While, in the book, the feelings and obscure thoughts are written in much more detail, the film tells us the same story by adequately using the gloom and doom locations, thunderous weather, second-hand and glamorous clothes and Hathaway’s blond wig. On top of that, there’s the very clever cinematography of Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog), which perfectly captures both Eileen’s delusions and Rebecca’s distorted goals. If you watch this feature, you experience Eileen’s story much differently than when reading the book, but that doesn’t mean the story loses any of its impact. No, it still goes from a relatively romantic drama about an obsessive girl to a psychological horror.

The obscenity – we will never forget that puke scene in the car – and grime might be hard to watch, but it’s also very electrifying and exciting. This is because of McKenzie’s jaw-dropping performance. When watching her in this feature, you’ll automatically think about her acting in Last Night in Soho, which is excellent. This is because when Eileen becomes delusional and wants to become like her new best friend, she loses grip on reality. The way her character transforms into Rebecca allows McKenzie to deliver a multifaceted performance.

Hathaway also embodies Rebecca with grace, ease, and smoothness, so you instantly believe there’s much more to her character than the glitter, glamour, and intelligence. The combination of the blond hair, her fancy red car, and that transatlantic accent initially makes her unrecognisable. Still, it fits the glamorousness but also mysteriousness of her character beautifully. McKenzie and Hathaway are in superb form, but during the last act, Marin Ireland (Hell or High Water) overclasses them as one of the inmates’ mum with a stunning, emotional performance. The scenes between the three women are violent and twisted like no other moment in this movie.

Oldroyd returns to the big screen with the disturbing tale of a young woman who uncovers who she is and her macabre desires. It’s a film and story you’ll remember for a long time. What could have been a mysterious, romantic drama – there are certainly some hints – turns out to be much darker and mind-twisting than that. The director perfectly balances the filth, violence and fun moments; therefore, the disgust you see never becomes unbearable and unwatchable. Alongside the obscene moments are McKenzie and Hathaway’s incredible and electrifying performances, ensuring that you never look away from the screen, even if the gore becomes a bit too much for you.

Eileen was screened in the Dare section of the BFI London Film Festival 2023. The movie is out in the UK on the 1^st of December, and in the US on the 1^st of December (limited release) and 8^th of December (nationwide). Eileen is courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Director: William Oldroyd

Writers: Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel

Rated: R

Runtime: 97m