Jump to the good stuff: The Story | Some Thoughts | The Final Verdict
The Story:
Eileen is a lesbian thriller set in the 1960s about two women working at a juvenile corrections institute. They quickly form a friendship that takes an unexpected turn.
Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) is a young woman living with her abusive alcoholic father, Jim (Shea Whigham), in a small town in Massachusetts. She works in a prison for teenage boys, where she is shunned by her co-workers. Eileen also has an interest in Lee Polk (Sam Nivola), an inmate who murdered his father.
When psychologist Rebecca Saint John (Anne Hathaway) joins the prison staff and takes a liking to her, Eileen becomes smitten. And when Eileen discovers that Rebecca also has an interest in Lee, she becomes more intrigued by her.
One night Rebecca asks Eileen out for a drink, to which Eileen readily agrees. They meet at a local bar, where they talk and dance, and the night ends with a brief kiss on the lips. And with that, Rebecca becomes more than just a romantic interest, but a way to escape her life. What comes next is a series of unexpected twists and turns.
Some Thoughts:
Eileen gets the look and feel of 1960s New England right. The acting throughout is perfect, right down to the minor characters. And as the story unfolds, it’s so easy to see how Eileen would be taken by Rebecca. It’s also an honest depiction of the way women were treated in the 1960s, and for decades after.
This is a movie with a lot of buildup. As Eileen and Rebecca become friends, it’s obvious that something is going to happen, the question is what and how. And since Eileen has thoughts of not only killing herself, but also her alcoholic father, anything seems possible. Her life isn’t happy, and she desperately wants to get out of it.
And because McKenzie plays Eileen so well, it’s easy to side with her. McKenzie and Hathaway have a natural rapport that works. Unlike Eileen’s co-workers and her father, Rebecca sees potential in Eileen. Eileen not only falls head over heels for Rebecca, but she also wants to emulate her. And because she’s so smitten, she doesn’t sense the possibility of danger that the viewer feels is imminent.
The film spends so much time building up to something, the expectations for the finale are large. Unfortunately, the ending is a bit of a letdown because of it.
The Final Verdict:
Eileen is a slow boil thriller that gets everything right except the end.
