EILEEN

You cannot go far wrong with a star performance by Anne Hathaway, cinematography by Ari Wegner, a score by Richard Reed Parry and direction by William Oldroyd. Eileen is an adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel of the same name. This 1960s Massachusetts-set film, could be interpreted as a tale of personal liberation of sly, socially withdrawn Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) by high-heeled blond prison psychologist Dr. Rebecca St. John (Hathaway). But the film moves across several genres – romantic melodrama to film noir into black-comedy horror, and comes to rest somewhere in the realms of a Hitchcock thriller. Note the opening credits – a direct pastiche of Rear Window. This slow burning film, with a precise script calculated to the smallest details, changes gear dramatically in the second half with one single line of dialog, to become a sinister look at secrets people hold within. ~OY