Rent Eileen (2023)

Come on - Eileen review by cr

Well this is an odd little film.

Well acted but the story involves a prison phsychiatrist kidnapping the mother of an inmate thats in the prison where she works.

She also ropes in a young female colleague who is smitten with her who also happens to bring her dads gun and shoots the mother "because she was upset."

Its all very slow and far fetched.

Not recommended.

Predictable, slow, unbelievable drama with feminist themes set in 1960s, from a novel - Eileen review by PV

This is one of those publicly-funded arty films made from a novel which has been praised to the skies and won literary prizes, partly at least for ticking a lot of boxes, as most hit novels in that literary scene.

The story is entirely female-focused, which is almost a cliche now, so many movies like that since #metoo. ALL male characters are 2-D cartoons, baddies, drunks, abusers - almost a feminist fantasy there. Seen that a lot lately too. BUT the female characters are also flimsy 2-dimenional not well-rounded at all - they seem so unrealistic and I do not believe their character arcs or the entire story arc.

The author of the novel, Ottessa Moshfegh, bafflingly claimed to be a major author by the literati, with a bestseller hit (no doubt with a certain kind of female reader), had a reputation for gruesome scenes from her first novella and that continues here. Not a book of film for me.

The most interesting character is the boy in prison and we never hear a word from him! Honestly, watch a decent prison drama instead if you want a good story. This is just a long drawn-out manblaming feminist pity party. And it is boring. With a totally unbelievable ending (no spoilers).

Predictable plot points and the usual backstory of characters which could be from any soap or melodrama. It is basically a soap pretending to be a literary novel film.

1 star for the film; 1 star for the excellent soundtrack which has some wonderful rarely-heard blues songs from the 60s.

Strange, Unfulfilling Psycho-Drama - Eileen review by GI

This is best described as a psychological drama although it flirts around in the dark comedy arena, and not always successfully, so it's difficult to categorise and ultimately it makes it a strange and unfulfilling film. Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) is a timid, repressed young woman who cares for her alcoholic, abusive ex cop of a father (Shea Wigham) and works as a filing clerk at a local young male prison. The setting is the 1960s and we watch Eileen have various fantasies highlighting her sexual and occasional violent escape fantasies. She becomes emotionally excited by the arrival of a new, glamorous psychiatrist (Anne Hathaway) who begins to show an interest in Eileen. A sexual encounter seems on the cards as the relationship follows a similar one as seen in Carol (2015) but the narrative switches into a more sinister direction. This is a solemn and intense film that has its moments and the performances are watchable but you're left feeling a little baffled by it all.