Eileen
Overview
Eileen is a 2023 psychological thriller film directed by William Oldroyd, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Ottessa Moshfegh. The film stars Thomasin McKenzie as Eileen Dunlop, a young, repressed, and deeply unhappy secretary who works at a juvenile detention center in a dreary Massachusetts town in the 1960s. She lives with her alcoholic, abusive father, a former policeman. Her life is transformed by the arrival of Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), a beautiful, charismatic, and worldly new counselor at the prison. Eileen becomes obsessed with Rebecca. The film is a slow-burn, atmospheric, and unsettling exploration of obsession, sexuality, and violence. The film takes a shocking turn in the third act, when Eileen helps Rebecca cover up a murder. Anne Hathaway gives a magnetic performance, and Thomasin McKenzie is excellent as the repressed, lonely Eileen.
