EILEEN

US/UK, 2023, 97 minutes, Colour.

Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway, Shea Whigham, Sam Nivola, Owen Teague, Siobhan Fallon Hogan.

Directed by William Oldroyd.

A young woman, Eileen (New Zealand’s Thomasin McKenzie) lives in a drab music Massachusetts town in the 1960s, alone with her ex-policeman father (Shea Whigham), alcoholic, menacing with his gun, always putting her down. She works in reception at the local prison.

Into her life comes a new expert, Rebecca, Harvard trained, blonde Marilyn Monroe look, a striking performance from Anne Hathaway. Anne Hathaway takes a liking to Eileen, affirms her, goes out for a drink with her, Eileen flattered by the attention.

While the film spends a lot of time focusing on Eileen, her ugly life at home, getting her father to surrender the gun to her, keeping him under control, despising him yet caring for him, and some of the personal squalor of her own life, clothes, cleanliness, as well as her voyeurism at night a local meeting place, early in the film, the film then moves to the complexity of her response to Rebecca. And the audience wonders whether there is a real liking there or Rebecca is using Eileen.

The complexity of the plot focuses on a young man whom Eileen continually observes and imagines, accused of killing his policeman father. His mother is interviewed by Rebecca, leading to a striking confrontation – and a later twist in the plot, violence, Eileen having to check her relationship with Rebecca, making final decisions, freeing herself from her father and from the town.

Continually intriguing.

1. The title, the focus on Eileen? Based on an award-winning novel, screenplay by the author and her husband?
2. The setting, Massachusetts, the 1960s, the small town, the weather, dismal, the streets, the prison and offices, homes, the bar? The surrounding countryside, bleak?
3. The range of songs, accompanying the action, the lyrics commenting on characters and action?
4. The portrait of Eileen, age 24, the introduction, in her car, voyeurism, sexual experience, at home with her father, his drinking and violence, his gun with people in the street, the police protesting, giving up his gun to Eileen, her narrow life, stopping studies, at the prison, letting visitors in and searching them, the reactions of the two women in the office, a humdrum existence? Use of health, cleanliness, uncleanliness?
5. Life in the prison, her looking out the window at Lee Polk, watching the guard, her fantasy about him, the physical reactions? Sitting in public? The work in the prison, the files?
6. The arrival of Rebecca, the Marilyn Monroe look, blonde hair, costumes and style, the impact of her arrival, her haughty manner, Harvard, her role in the prison, with members of the staff, the significance of the Christmas pageant, the presentation, the mockery, the fight, happening every year? Her reaction, Eileen’s reaction?
7. The relationship between Rebecca and Eileen, the glamour versus the plain, Eileen caught up, admiration, fascination, Rebecca talking to her, the invitations, outside smoking, the discussions, the drink at the bar, the dancing, Eileen infatuated?
8. Polk’s situation, Eileen always watching him in the yard, alone, his mother’s arrival, Rebecca sweeping her in, Eileen watching the discussion, Lee silent, the mother’s reaction, sweeping out in anger? The consequences, the issue of the son killing his father, the echo for Eileen at her own father?
9. At home, her father’s drinking, complaints, mocking her, memories of his wife, the fact that he was abusive, his saying she forgave him, the continued treatment of Eileen, out all night, being sick on the car, locking her out, the criticisms, the accident, going to the doctor, the drinking would kill him, coming home? The final talk with some kind of understanding of her?
10. Christmas Eve, Rebecca gone, Eileen dismayed? The phone call, going to the house, the bottle of drink, the talk, audience anticipation, a different consequence, Mrs Polk, in the basement, tied up, the interrogation, her collapse and telling the truth about father and son, her own behaviour? Eileen with the gun, holding it, wounding Mrs Polk, forcing the drugs down?
11. Rebecca, staying to tidy up, never appearing again? Eileen to take the body, at home, her decision to drive out, leaving the body wounded and drugged, going to the highway, getting a lift, going to a future, with the money she had saved, smiling?
12. The unpredictability of the plot, intimations of direction of the plot, but the plot going in different directions?