Eileen’s life is about to change.
Eileen follows the titular character (Thomasin McKenzie, Last Night in Soho) as she leads a lonely existence, working in a corrections facility for teenage boys and caring for her widowed and alcoholic Father (Shea Whigham). Eileen frequently dreams of killing herself or those around her as well as having fantasies about the male prison guards, all in all longing for something of a more exciting life. Things then change when a new Doctor, Rebecca Saint John (Anne Hathaway, The Witches), arrives at the facility and bonds with Eileen and offers her a more glamourous life. The two begin going out drinking together and Eileen finds herself falling in love and finally looking forward to going into work. Rebecca however has other ideas and she actually has big plans concerning one of the newer patients. Will Eileen go along with her new work crush and change things forever or will she be forced to return to her lonely existence after all?
Eileen made for a interesting kind of watch and the moody vibes throughout and unclear storyline meant that I never quite knew what was going to happen next. We started with this character of Eileen who by all accounts had a pretty lifeless existence, stuck in a dead-end job and caring for her Father when no one else would. Then enter Rebecca and it was like everything changed and suddenly there was this shining light at the end of the tunnel. Being a drama though it was obvious something was going to go wrong down the line, I just didn’t know what and when.
Like I said above I wasn’t always sure where the storyline was going in Eileen and whether we were dealing with a happy lesbian romance, a coming of age drama, a prison thriller or something else entirely. There were so many different directions we could have gone in and that final third act twist really took me by surprise. The reveal that Rebecca had essentially kidnapped Mrs Polk (Marin Ireland, The Umbrella Academy) to get to the truth completely changed the tone of the entire film and the last 30 minutes or so really turned into something else entirely. The rush to get rid of the evidence for a seemingly happy ending together only for it to all fall apart really solidified the moodier and darker themes throughout and I really enjoyed those final shots of Eileen escaping her life for hopefully something better, even if it was alone.
Overall Eileen was an interesting film and I enjoyed the moodier vibes and performances from the main cast. I wasn’t exactly sure where the storyline was going at times but that third act twist really blew me away and completely changed the direction of the whole story. A fun and at times exciting thriller, Eileen made for an interesting watch and I’d definitely be interested in reading the original novel the film was based on.
Ramblings of a Supposed Writer 