Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
During a bitter 1964 Massachusetts winter, young secretary Eileen becomes enchanted by Rebecca, the glamorous new counselor at the prison where she works. Their budding friendship takes a twisted turn when Rebecca reveals a dark secret — throwing Eileen onto a sinister path.
Eileen is elevated well above its modest reputation by two exceptional central performances — Anne Hathaway is magnetic and Thomasin McKenzie delivers a quietly riveting study in repression and longing. The cinematography leans beautifully into its 1960s New England noir palette, with desaturated, icy visuals that perfectly mirror Eileen's frozen interior life. The plot, however, is a slow-burn character study that abruptly pivots into genre mechanics in its third act, and the ending feels rushed and unearned — the climax and resolution dissipate tension rather than pay it off. Novelty is solid but not exceptional; it works within familiar noir-femme fatale and literary-adaptation territory, distinguished more by its atmospheric execution and lead performances than by any truly singular conception.