Eileen: Anne Hathaway’s Thriller
See it or Skip it?
It’s a really rare thing for a movie to both delight me and bum me out completely. Directed by William Oldroy (Lady Macbeth) Eileen stars Thomasina McKenzie (Last Night in Soho) and Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) and is set at a youth prison in New England in the 1960s.
When I say the movie delighted me, I mean it. It’s gorgeous. Eileen Dunlop works in a boy’s prison, where everything is cold, clinical, cement, metal, ugly lighting, buzzcuts. The front offices are beautifully warm, oak, leather, cloth-bound books, ashtrays. The set design comes together with impeccable cinematography in the most wonderful way. Eileen’s house is shared with her alcoholic father. She was stuck in this little prison town when she came home to take care of her dying mother. Her mom died, and now she’s stuck taking care of her dad, who is losing to alcoholism. The house definitely has its own energy. It’s dark, messy, and dead-looking. Ari Wegner is Eileen’s cinematographer, and she deserves a huge chunk of the credit for carrying this film. The lighting, colors, and camera angles made Eileen one of the prettiest movies I’ve ever seen.
The rest of the credit belongs to Thomasina McKenzie and Anne Hathaway. The acting is as good as the cinematography, although the ultra-thick Boston accents took me out of it from time to time. Both…
