Psychological thriller Eileen is sharp, moody and not quite right — just like its main character

 

Stylish adaptation is a mid-century film noir pastiche with miscast Anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway, left, and Thomasin McKenzie are shown in a scene from Eileen, an adaptation of the 2015 debut novel by American author Ottessa Moshfegh, who often writes about female loners.

You don't get many thrillers made in the tradition of mid-century film noir anymore. That was the promise of Eileen, a recent adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh's 2015 debut novel about a twisted young prison secretary who strikes up a friendship with a mysterious colleague.

In the last few years, Moshfegh has been crowned online as the author of choice for women of a certain stripe. She often writes about female loners, giving special attention to the parts of her characters that many would consider unbefitting of a leading lady — their strange habits, perverse thoughts and extreme self-loathing.

These characteristics are explored, but not as visceral as you might hope they'd be in director William Oldroyd's adaptation — perhaps because Moshfegh, a co-screenwriter, was dismayed after the novel's release that critics found the character repulsive.

Played with a killer Massachusetts accent by Thomasin McKenzie, Eileen is a junior secretary at the juvenile prison in her sleepy 1960s New England town.

Shot to emphasize the town's winter greens and blues, the movie looks how it feels: chilly, eerily still.

While the people in her orbit know that Eileen isn't quite right, the character's strange inner world is a secret between her and the audience. She chews up soft candies only to spit them back into their wrappers, not wanting to consume the calories; she imagines herself being publicly ravished by a prison guard; and she fantasizes about using her ex-cop father's gun on him and herself.

Eileen's only domestic duty in the neglected home she shares with Dad is to seamlessly replace his empty liquor bottles. Her father reminds her frequently of the more important women who once lived in their house — Eileen's dead mother and her estranged sister, Joanie, who has since escaped their sad life. What would it take for Eileen to do the same?

The days pass by in a blur until a beautiful stranger arrives, exciting Eileen and changing the course of her life. Rebecca, the sophisticated prison therapist fresh from Harvard ("Hah-vahd"), becomes the object of Eileen's inertia-driven fixation. In this woman, invisible Eileen sees someone worth aspiring to. She doesn't expect Rebecca to return her interest, but a bizarre friendship bordering on desire blooms in their distinctly unfriendly workplace.