Eileen ★★★

It’s somewhat strange we have two films this year set in midcentury New England at Christmastime: The Holdovers and Eileen. It’s an oddly specific coincidence, but these two films couldn’t be further apart. The Holdovers presents a Grinch finding his heart while Eileen is preoccupied with madness and disaster. Eileen couldn’t be further from a Christmas story. The titular Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) works at a correctional facility for teenage boys. She feels the harsh coldness of winter and is a young woman in a sea of unavailable men. She’s attracted to a prison guard and in the cold of winter and the drab prison, there’s little to prevent Eileen’s imagination from running wild.

Eileen is a curious woman, and there’s nothing that piques her curiosity more than the arrival of a new psychiatrist, Rebecca (Anne Hathaway). Rebecca is Ivy League-educated, stunningly beautiful, and couldn’t be more out of place in a correctional facility. She’s a confident woman who belongs on magazine covers. The two lock eyes when Rebecca is introduced to the facility staff, and the pair quickly become attracted to each other. Eileen sees a progressive, uninhibited woman in Rebecca while Rebecca sees an innocent young woman in a new place she can trust. Something that’s pretty difficult to find when working in a correctional facility.

Meeting Rebecca offers Eileen a distraction from her home life, and maybe even a chance at freedom. Eileen’s father is a retired police officer who has lost his wife. His retirement was not his choice, and he spends his days as a mean drunkard who brandishes his gun while arguing with neighbors. Scenes at Eileen’s house are shot with sparse lighting, providing a very literal darkness in Eileen’s life. Eileen is a caretaker for her father, and living with him provides Eileen with little freedom to live her own life. Eileen’s home life is distressing, so when Rebecca calls her home phone, Eileen jumps at the opportunity to go elsewhere. Eileen decides to wear her mother’s clothing rather than clothes of her own, and this choice shows a lack of individual expression as well as portrays Eileen as a girl in woman’s clothing.

When meeting Rebecca, Eileen is entranced by the air of mystery and sophistication around Rebecca. In conversation, Rebecca references the studies of Timothy Leary and the art of Vermeer (I’m assuming based on her description – she names neither by name), reinforcing how knowledgeable and worldly she is compared to Eileen. Eileen regards its characters as mysteries, providing less character development than in the novel the film is based on. What is clearly evident, however, is the sexual tension between Eileen and Rebecca. Eileen makes numerous references to the fact that Eileen is sexually repressed, and Rebecca is either oblivious or keen to foster Eileen’s imagination. I believe it’s the latter.

Eileen’s Technicolor aesthetic is abandoned for bathing the screen in red when Rebecca is with Eileen. Eileen is shot to look like a 1960s Hitchcock film, and director William Oldroyd’s source of inspiration is clear with a ‘Hitchcock blonde’ femme fatale as well as a Hitchcockian twist of his own (not to mention the name ‘Rebecca’). Technicolor-esque blue tones illustrate the smothering cold of the Massachusetts winter, though the most sinister scene of the film is shown in bright, inescapable white. Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, Eileen offers audiences compelling characters and thrills. And contrary to the film’s Christmastime setting, Eileen is far from a warm and fuzzy experience.