Eileen review: This film hits the mark with more than a touch of Hitchcock and Highsmith, writes BRIAN VINER

Eileen (15.97 minutes)

Verdict: Atmospheric thriller

Assessment:

SSome names are inherently more glamorous than others. Despite the efforts of Dexy’s Midnight Runners all those years ago, and despite the formidable Dame Eileen Atkins, Eileen represents (if only to me) modesty, reserve and anonymity.

The same cannot be said for Rebecca. There is mystery, danger and glamor in the name, which may have something to do with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film of the same name, which was such an effective adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel.

Whatever the case, Eileen – the eponymous character in William Oldroyd’s carefully crafted psychological thriller – is a domineering, funny, rather repressed young woman.

Beautifully played by Thomasin McKenzie, she lives with her emotionally abusive father and works in the office of a local juvenile detention center, where, when not ignored, she is frequently visited by her older colleagues.

But Eileen’s life and opportunities change when she meets Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), the institute’s new psychologist. From the moment she confidently steps out of her shiny red sports car, with her peroxided hair like Marilyn Monroe, Rebecca’s sex appeal simmers like the scent of expensive perfumes.

But Eileen’s life and opportunities change when she meets Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), the institute’s new psychologist.

From the moment she confidently steps out of her shiny red sports car, with her peroxided hair like Marilyn Monroe, Rebecca’s sex appeal simmers like the scent of expensive perfumes.

“She may be a real looker, but I assure you she is very clever,” the jailer tells his staff.

This casual sexism – note the “but” – is deeply rooted.

The setting is small-town Massachusetts in the 1960s. Lyndon Johnson succeeded the assassinated John F. Kennedy in the White House, but there are no signs of social unrest comparable to the political one, at least not in this neck of the woods.

Everyone knows their place, especially Eileen, although we are aware that she has a more exciting inner life because we are aware of her over-the-top fantasies, some sexual, some violent.

After the seductive Rebecca looks at her – “You have a strange face: it’s simple but fascinating” – Eileen’s self-esteem gradually begins to grow, like tightly closed petals opening in the sunlight.

She somewhat fades her fascination with her father, a self-pitying, alcoholic ex-cop played beautifully by Shea Whigham, and begins searching through her late mother’s closet for items of clothing that might attract attention. Especially Rebecca’s head.

As they dance together in a bar one night, the older woman’s love for Eileen begins to imply the almost unthinkable: that the relationship leads inexorably to the bedroom. Eileen, for her part, is quite in love.

Hathaway, a movie star whose rom-com past sometimes denies her the status she deserves as an actress of real consequence, is wonderful in the role of the sophisticated Rebecca.

But it is the talented young New Zealander McKenzie who gives the real standout performance in this film.

I loved her in Last Night In Soho (2021) and made the most of a role that required her to be otherworldly and impressionable. Her character in Eileen is not that different, but slowly and teasingly it becomes clear that she is not nearly as guileless as she seems.

Hathaway, a movie star whose rom-com past sometimes denies her the status she deserves as an actress of real consequence, is wonderful as the sophisticated Rebecca.

As they dance together in a bar one night, the older woman’s love for Eileen begins to imply the almost unthinkable: that the relationship leads inexorably to the bedroom.

Everyone knows their place, especially Eileen, although we are aware that she has a more exciting inner life because we are familiar with her over-the-top fantasies

Oldroyd explored similar territory in his thrilling feature debut “Lady Macbeth” (2016), about a young woman in Victorian England who is forced into a desperately unhappy marriage and proves to be energetic enough to break out of her social straitjacket.

It was based on a Russian novel and this film (atmospherically shot by the same cinematographer, Ari Wegner), also has literary roots, namely in the novel of the same name by Ottessa Moshfegh.

Moshfegh, along with her husband Luke Goebel, adapted the script herself, and whether she and Oldroyd intended it or not, the story has clear echoes of Patricia Highsmith and indeed Alfred Hitchcock’s. Because it’s about more than just an intense relationship between two women.

In prison, Rebecca becomes increasingly concerned about the case of the teenager Leo (played by Sam Nivola, Emily Mortimer’s son), who stabbed his father.

She is determined to learn more about his motivations and the family circumstances that led him to commit the murder while his father lay in bed next to his mother (Marin Ireland).

In ways I cannot divulge here, Rebecca’s fixation reveals that she is much more vulnerable than she appears, and Eileen much stronger. Which of course shows what nonsense it is to associate character traits with a name.