Eileen(2023)

Plot Summary

• The film begins with a car facing a frozen lake while tendrils of smoke fill the view.Set in the early 1960s, Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) sits in her car while a young couple fool around in a nearby car, which she becomes turned on by... eventually shoving snow down her pants. She drives back to her house in a car whose engine causes the cabin to fill with smoke unless the windows are down. Her father, Jim (Shea Whigham), sits in an armchair surrounded by empty liquor bottles, which she replaces as she enters. Going upstairs to her bedroom, she lays on her bed sucking on sweets, then spitting them out before falling asleep.The following morning, she arrives at the boy's prison in which she works as a secretary. Watching from the window, Eileen takes notice of a young man, Lee Polk (Sam Nivola), leaning up against the wall away from all of the other prisoners. At visiting hours, she pats down all of the women coming to visit, then fantasizes about a young guard and touches herself. While leaving, she passes the going away party for the prison psychologist, Dr. Frye, who is being replaced the following day.When Eileen arrives home, she finds Jim drunk in the street pointing his gun at passersby, while a policeman, Buck (Jefferson White), attempts to calm him down. She gets him back inside and, since Jim is a former police chief, the officer leaves him in her care. Her father then berates her for not being as good as her sister or her deceased mother and for not making a life of her own. To keep him from going back outside, Eileen takes all of his pairs of shoes and locks them in the boot of her car.One day, Rebecca St. John (Anne Hathaway) arrives at the prison, taking the role of the new prison psychologist. Eileen is immediately taken by her beauty and style, and they bond over their apathy towards what others think. The annual Christmas pageant arrives, which is quickly mocked and ruined by a rowdy group of prisoners. Rebecca takes notes, then leaves hastily once the fighting breaks out. On the way home, Eileen buys a pack of cigarettes, which Rebecca had been seen to be smoking that day. Jim reveals that Lee Polk is in jail for killing his father, another former cop, and hasn't said a word to anyone since the brutal murder.When arriving at work the next day, Eileen stares at Lee Polk through the window of his cell, then peruses through his file... including graphic pictures of the murder. Rebecca catches her and helps her clean up, then laments about the lack of suitable men in the area and invites Eileen to stop by her office sometime.The following morning, Anne Polk (Marin Ireland) arrives to visit her son, having been called in by Rebecca. However, Lee refuses to speak to her, and she leaves in an angry fit. Rebecca takes him back to her office, which Eileen drops by to give her back her notebook. Rebecca seems worried that she may have read it, then invites her out for drinks at the local bar. Eileen gets dressed in her best clothes and sneaks out of the house. At the bar, the girls drink and chat, then begin dancing together - even fending off the advances of other men to stay together. At the end of the night Rebecca kisses Eileen, which leaves her stunned and smiling. Eileen decides to stay at the bar, smoking one of Rebecca's cigarettes and drinking martinis.Eileen awakens in her car in a pile of her own vomit, having been locked out of the house by her father. While cleaning up the car, Buck returns to alert her that there have been complaints about Jim pointing his gun at children coming home from school. It has been arranged that the gun will be placed in Eileen's care, though under the condition she not use it against Jim. Immediately, she begins having fantasies about killing herself and her father with it.Upon arriving at work, Eileen finds that Rebecca will not return until after the holidays. Upset and hurt, Eileen breaks into Rebecca's office and spends the day sleeping on her desk. She returns home and finds Jim passed out in his own blood, having fallen down the stairs. She takes him to the hospital, where the doctors bandage him up and alert Eileen that this drinking is on track to kill him. When they return home, Jim insists on having a drink with Eileen, but ends up telling her that she's the kind of person that doesn't matter and simply fills up space, causing her to cry.The following day, Rebecca calls and invites Eileen over to her house for Christmas Eve. Eileen is ecstatic and rushes to get dressed up for their evening. Over wine, the pair discuss the idea of being "normal" and Rebecca's frustrations about not seeing the change she hoped for in the prison. Rebecca discloses that Lee claims his father had been molesting him and that his mother had been complicit in it. She then reveals that this is not her house, but rather the Polk house, and she has Mrs. Polk tied up and drugged in the basement until she confesses to her part in the abuse. While originally aghast and horrified, Eileen is convinced to stay and gathers her father's gun from the car.Under Rebecca's direction, Eileen threatens to shoot Mrs. Polk if she doesn't confess. Eventually, Mrs. Polk breaks down and reveals that, while she didn't originally know about the abuse, she had found out but remained complicit because she liked the intimacy with her husband afterwards. Even going so far as to give Lee a bath and an enema before bed to "make it easier for all of them." Enraged, Eileen shoots Mrs. Polk in the shoulder, who begins screaming. Rebecca is horrified and rushes to stop the blood and screaming, eventually helping Eileen force feed Mrs. Polk medication to knock her out. Eileen suggests that they should take Mrs. Polk to Jim's house, as people would believe that he shot her during a blackout. She confesses her love for Rebecca and tells her that it will all be okay. Rebecca agrees to the plan, saying she will clean up the basement, then meet Eileen there.Eileen arrives back at the house, packs her bag, and waits for Rebecca, who never shows. Eileen instead decides to take the car to the woods and leave it running with Mrs. Polk in the back to asphyxiate, then hitchhikes down the road. In the final shot, as Eileen sits in the cab of the truck, she smiles to herself.

Storyline

• The stagnant waters of Eileen's dull, stifled life as a solitary worker at a juvenile detention center in 1960s Boston, are unexpectedly disrupted when the institution brings in a new psychologist, the vibrant Rebecca. The fervent enthusiasm that blossoms between the two women almost immediately gives way to a closer relationship, until their fragile connection takes a dramatic turn. — Thessaloniki International Film Festival