Slow Paced But Interesting—Review Of Eileen (2023)

Eileen lives in a small, boring Massachusetts town with her alcoholic father at home and works at a youth prison for boys. Her routine is the same every day until a new psychologist, Rebecca Saint John (played by Anne Hathaway), joins the prison staff close to Christmas time.

Eileen becomes fascinated with Rebecca and soon, they become friends until Rebecca invites the young lady over for Christmas Eve at an apartment. Eileen is super excited, dresses up like she's going on a date and arrives at the address. To her disappointment, she meets something unexpected in the apartment that frees her from a dreary life in Massachusetts. Will Eileen continue to be friends with Rebecca after the incident in the apartment? What is Rebecca really up to?

Review

From the opening scene, I know there's a mystery surrounding Eileen, and for the next one hour and thirty minutes, the movie lays out this unstable character for the audience to see. The plot of this film is good but not great, in my opinion. From the title, it's clear the focus is on Eileen, her character, lifestyle and choices. And the slow pace of the film highlights the dullness.

The storytelling makes the film come off as almost boring. We see a young lady who is unhappy with her life but lives through it like she has no choice and often resorts to masturbation to spice things up, that is until Anne Hathaway steps into the film. Hathaway is chic, pretty and adds some colour to Eileen's dreary life and things begin to spin out of control.

The spark of the film for me is when Hathaway invites Eileen over for Christmas Eve and it's revealed that she's a psychologist who resorts to unsanctioned means to get her job done. This revelation loses the remaining screws in Eileen's head and she spins out of control. So let's say the action in this film takes place around fifteen minutes towards the end!

The storytelling concentrates the better part of the film on the audience getting to know Eileen and understand her, which is great. But I wish it wasn't at such a slow pace.

The performance of these actresses is outstanding. Thomasin McKenzie fully portrays the character of Eileen excellently from her antisocial behaviours to the display of filth and unexpected outbursts. Her act is believable. Anne Hathaway as always is a star. Her entrance into the film, figuratively sweeping Eileen off her feet, is fascinating. Her character is delightful, unbound and exciting which was what Eileen needed to come out of her shell. Their relationship is blurry and leaves a lot to the audience's imagination.

Overall, Eileen is a fine psychological thriller that says a lot about the rot and perversion in the human mind. All it sometimes needs is a spark! I'll give this film 3 stars out of 5.

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^{Images are screenshots from the trailer linked from YouTube}