A recurring motif in Eileen is that of prisons. Not only does Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) work in one in the literal sense, but she is imprisoned by her life circumstances. She lives alone with her emotionally abusive father, who is in his own prison of alcoholism, in a rundown house in a small town in Massachusetts. When we meet her, there seems to be an almost total lack of future, but suddenly, everything changes when Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) is hired by the prison she works at. Her presence intensifies her already overpowering sexual fantasies. I’ve been a fan of Thomasin McKenzie for years now, and she continues to impress with what may just be her best work yet. She has a look and a demeanor throughout every scene that conveys how repressed all of her desires and negative emotions are. Eileen doesn’t only fantasize about having Rebecca, but she wants to become Rebecca. She admires Rebecca for how confident and expressive she is about what her desires in life are and how she refuses to settle for less.
Even before seeing the film, learning of the premise for it immediately reminded me of Todd Haynes’s Carol, which was also about a woman becoming obsessed with an older woman who appeared to have her life more figured out than it really was. Even the scenery constructed by director William Oldroyd and lead cinematographer Ari Wegner seems to mimic that cozy but desolate winter aesthetic, even going as far as including a very subtle green-ish hue to many scenes of the film.
One of the rarest criticisms I have of films is not being long enough, but it’s something I felt applies here. Eileen has a lot on its mind, and it needed more than ninety eight minutes to convey all of it. I would argue that this could have even been another half an hour could have been added to this, and it seemed to end rather abruptly. The future is equally uncertain for Eileen as it was at the beginning of the story. One prison was replaced by another.
No comments:
Post a Comment