Eileen Movie Review

『An Uneasy Female Narrative Born from Oppression and Inner Conflict』

🎥 Movie Overview

🎬 Title: Eileen (2023)
🌍 Country: 🇺🇸 USA
🎞️ Genre: Psychological Thriller / Drama / Noir
🗓️ Release: 2023, Feature Film
⏳ Runtime: Approx. 100 min
📢 Director: William Oldroyd
📖 Original Novel: Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen (2015)

👩‍💼 Cast: Thomasin McKenzie – Eileen Dunlop
Anne Hathaway – Rebecca Saint John

🧩 Deep Story Exploration (Spoilers)

⚡ The Oppressive World and Eileen’s Inner Landscape

The film’s opening meticulously follows Eileen’s stifling and grotesque daily life, constructing the framework of her repressed desires.

• A Prison-Like Routine: Eileen works as a secretary at a juvenile detention center and takes care of her alcoholic, abusive father, Jim (played by Shea Whigham). The conservative, patriarchal atmosphere of the 1960s traps her in a state of sexual and emotional isolation.
• Internal Outbursts (Fantasies): Her suppressed desires and rage surface through disturbing, impulsive fantasies. She masturbates secretly in the office restroom, gazes voyeuristically at inmates, and experiences sudden, violent micro-fantasies about killing her father or ending her own life. Through these scenes, the film’s use of an unreliable narrator builds tension and implies that Eileen’s mental state is far from stable.

Into this dull and suffocating routine enters Rebecca Saint John, a new prison psychologist, marking a dramatic turning point in Eileen’s life.

🎭 Worship and Fascination: Rebecca as Eileen’s ‘Idealized Self’

To Eileen, Rebecca is not merely an object of attraction but a projection of who she wishes she could become.

• Projection of Lack: Trapped in a suffocating household with her alcoholic father, Eileen lacks confidence, sexuality, and agency. Rebecca, with her elegant looks, Harvard education, sophisticated manners, and liberated attitude, embodies everything Eileen desires but cannot attain.
• Blind Worship and Imitation: Eileen immediately develops an obsessive admiration for Rebecca, mimicking her gestures and even dressing like her to gain her attention. Rather than discovering herself through the relationship, Eileen aspires to become Rebecca, revealing her fragile sense of self and dependency.

💘 Psychological Transference: Dangerous Intimacy and the Collapse of Boundaries

Their relationship evolves into a case of psychological transference, as Rebecca’s role as a psychologist blurs the line between empathy and manipulation.

• Rebecca’s Calculated Approach: Rebecca identifies Eileen’s loneliness and vulnerability and deliberately approaches her with intimacy. This calculated closeness may stem from Rebecca’s need for Eileen’s isolated loyalty to execute her own dark intentions. By giving Eileen a sense of “specialness,” Rebecca destabilizes her psychological boundaries and awakens her repressed desires.
• Eileen’s Emotional Dependence: Eileen, in turn, projects her yearning for salvation from her father’s abuse onto Rebecca. The growing queer tension between them opens a door to sexual awakening for Eileen but also pulls her into an increasingly dangerous obsession.

💥 Catastrophic Liberation: Violence, Betrayal, and the Birth of Self

In the film’s third act, the Rita Polk murder case exposes how their relationship becomes the violent medium for Eileen’s psychological awakening.

• The Final Test: When Rebecca implicates Eileen in the murder of Rita Polk (the mother of inmate Lee Polk), Eileen’s fantasies begin to materialize. This act of violence channels her long-suppressed destructive impulses and her craving to feel powerful, long buried beneath fear and repression.
• Betrayal and Independence: After the crime, Rebecca abandons Eileen, shattering her idolized image of Rebecca. The betrayal devastates Eileen but simultaneously forces her to act independently, no longer relying on others to define her identity.
• Rebirth of Self: Eileen’s decision to dispose of the body alone signifies her transformation from a passive victim into an active agent of her own fate. Her final smile encapsulates a paradoxical revelation: “I may be a criminal, but I am finally free.” Leaving her oppressive hometown, she steps into a life of freedom and uncertainty, symbolizing the birth of her autonomous self.

Rebecca was to Eileen both an ideal, a seductress, and ultimately a betrayer. Yet paradoxically, Rebecca’s very existence—and her eventual abandonment—served as the catalyst for Eileen’s violent yet necessary liberation.

🎞️ Complex, Disturbing, Yet Mesmerizing Psychological Portrait

Eileen combines chilling beauty with psychological unease, elevated by the remarkable performances of Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway. The film vividly captures the oppressive mood of the 1960s, weaving repression, desire, and destruction into a haunting tapestry. Although the abrupt genre shift and ambiguous ending may feel unsettling or incomplete to some, this film remains a provocative and distinctive psychological thriller that delves into the dark interplay between control, obsession, and female identity.

🎯 Personal Rating

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥♥♥
⭐ Rating: ★★