‘Eileen’ Review — Eileen is different these days

A review of the new thriller, in theaters December 1, 2023

“You’re different these days,” Eileen’s father tells her. “You’re almost… interesting.” Eileen’s new friend from work, Dr. Rebecca St. John, offers a similar appraisal. “You have a strange face,” she muses, both women lit by neon and surrounded by falling snow. “It’s plain, but fascinating.” Eileen, she says, seems to contain a “beautiful turbulence.”

It’s an apt descriptor for the film itself, a beguiling new thriller from director William Oldroyd. When it starts, Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) is a lonely girl. The film opens on Eileen watching two people hook up in a car, touching herself as they get hot and heavy. She spends her days as a secretary at a boys’ prison and her nights caring for her cruel, alcoholic father (Shea Wigham), a former cop. She also fantasizes about a handsome young prison guard (Owen Teague), imagining him ravishing her up against a window. Eileen has an “extreme propensity for sweets,” sucking on chocolates and dumping way too much sugar in her coffee.

The arrival of Rebecca changes everything. She’s Anne Hathaway in a flouncy blonde wig, and she’s the new prison psychologist. “She may be easy on the eyes, but I assure you, she’s very smart,” the warden (Peter McRobbie) tells his staff.