---
title: "Eileen"
year: 2023
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/eileen"
fi1m_id: "eileen"
imdb_id: "tt5198890"
tmdb_id: 664341
wikidata_id: "Q113335768"
fi1m_score: 68
critics_score: 73
critics_reviews: 15
published: "2026-09-10"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:05.154082+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Eileen (2023)

Directed by William Oldroyd · 1h 38m · MPA R · Thriller, Crime

## Identity

Eileen

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/eileen
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** eileen
- **IMDb ID:** tt5198890
- **TMDB ID:** 664341
- **Wikidata ID:** Q113335768
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5198890/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/664341, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113335768

**Fi1m score: 68** · Critics 73 from 15 reviews

*In a sentence:* An hour of longing in a borrowed cardigan, then the film remembers it promised a thriller

> William Oldroyd’s adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel is a handsome, slow, funny study of a young woman’s longing, with Anne Hathaway as the object and Thomasin McKenzie doing the longing. The last third changes genre, and then the film stops rather than ends.

## Synopsis

New England, the 1960s, the week before Christmas. Eileen Dunlop (Thomasin McKenzie) types and files at a boys’ prison and goes home each night to her father Jim (Shea Whigham), a retired policeman who drinks and keeps his gun within reach. She has nowhere else to go and nothing much to want until Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) arrives as the prison’s new psychologist: blonde, educated, smoking where nobody else dares, and inclined to notice Eileen. A friendship starts over drinks. Rebecca takes an interest in one of the boys, Lee Polk (Sam Nivola), and in his mother (Marin Ireland). Eileen takes an interest in Rebecca. Adapted by Ottessa Moshfegh and Luke Goebel from Moshfegh’s novel and directed by William Oldroyd.

## Review

William Oldroyd’s second film, after *Lady Macbeth*, is another study of a young woman kept in a house she did not choose. Eileen Dunlop (Thomasin McKenzie) types and files at a boys’ prison in New England in the 1960s, drives home through the snow to a father (Shea Whigham) who has stopped washing up and started waving a gun about, and spends her lunch breaks imagining sex and violence in roughly equal measure. Then Rebecca arrives. For an hour the film is patient, sly and often funny about wanting. In its last third it turns into something else, and we do not think it earns the change.

McKenzie plays Eileen as someone who has decided to be invisible and is starting to resent how well it is working. She hunches, she watches, she eats sweets out of a desk drawer, and now and then a look crosses her face that suggests the mouse has plans. Hathaway’s Rebecca is the opposite proposition: a blonde in a good coat who smokes where she likes, says “Eileen” as if it were a compliment and treats the prison’s grey men as a private joke she is prepared to share. The film is careful never to tell us whether Rebecca is remarkable or simply the first person to look at Eileen twice. There is a scene in a bar where the two of them dance, and it is the happiest the film gets.

Ari Wegner shoots all this through what looks like a lifetime of cigarette smoke. The snow is grey, the walls are the colour of weak tea, and the only bright thing in any room is Hathaway’s hair. Craig Lathrop’s Dunlop house is a place where nobody has moved anything in years, and his prison is green paint and radiators. Olga Mill dresses Eileen in wool that fits like it belonged to someone else and Rebecca in clothes cut for a different city. Richard Reed Parry’s score is the surprise: big, swooning strings that belong to a grander romance than the one on screen, so that every time Eileen looks at Rebecca the music takes her side. It is the film’s best joke and also the reason we believed her.

Nick Emerson’s cutting does the other clever thing. Eileen’s daydreams, a hand on a guard’s belt, a gun going off in the kitchen, arrive without warning in the middle of ordinary shots and are snatched away before the scene has noticed. The first time it happened we laughed out loud. By the third we had stopped trusting anything on screen. For that first hour we were with her completely, and when Rebecca walks into the office and McKenzie’s face does something it has not done all film, we felt the lift ourselves.

Then the film takes a turn we will not describe, except to say that it moves to a different house, a different kind of picture and a much smaller cast. Marin Ireland, as the mother of one of the boys, is given one long scene and plays it with a flatness that is the most frightening thing in the film. We sat up for it. But the film has spent an hour teaching us to read Eileen’s face and now asks us to watch her react to other people’s business; the longing that carried the first hour is gone and nothing replaces it. Then it ends, sharply, at a point where we had assumed there were twenty minutes to go.

*Lady Macbeth* had the same problem the other way round: it knew exactly where it was going and got there a little too neatly. *Eileen* knows where it is going and, having arrived, does not know what to do. Ottessa Moshfegh and Luke Goebel’s script, from Moshfegh’s own novel, is good on the small humiliations of a shared office and a shared house, and much less good at the mechanics of a thriller. The first hour is a fine piece of work. We only wish someone had made the second.

See it for McKenzie, for Hathaway’s cigarettes and for Parry’s strings, and see it with someone, because you will want to argue about the last twenty minutes on the way home. It runs 98 minutes and carries a 15, and it feels shorter, which for once is not a compliment.

*Fi1m score 68, published 10 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like Eileen, and the praise clusters in the same two places: the lead performances and the atmosphere. Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie are singled out throughout, several reviews calling the pairing the film’s engine and a few naming it their best work to date. The 1960s New England setting, the sickly festive colour and the score are credited with a mood of glamour rubbing against grime, and the novel’s dark humour is judged to have survived the adaptation intact. Many enjoy the film’s willingness to swerve from a story of repression into something much nastier.

The reservations gather around that swerve and what follows it. Even admirers find the script thin and the ending abrupt, with the central relationship left underdeveloped. The dissent is sharp rather than widespread: Empire calls it a workaday genre exercise, The Times finds the late plot ridiculous, and The Guardian judges it a solemn, anticlimactic misfire. The gap between the warmest and coldest reviews is unusually wide.

## Straight answers

**Is Eileen worth watching?**

*Eileen* is worth watching for its first hour, a patient and often funny study of a young woman's longing, and we scored it 68. Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway are both good, and Richard Reed Parry's swooning score takes Eileen's side in a way we believed. The last third changes genre and then stops rather than ends, so go in for the performances, not the thriller.

**How long is Eileen, and what is it rated?**

*Eileen* runs 1h 38m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a thriller and crime film.

**Where can I watch Eileen in the US?**

*Eileen* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Eileen, and is it suitable for children?**

*Eileen* carries a 15 in the UK and an R in the US, and it is not for children. Eileen's daydreams of sex and violence cut into ordinary scenes without warning, a father waves a gun about at home, and the last third turns into a much darker kind of picture. Teenagers of fifteen and up who can take slow-burning unease should be fine.

**How does Eileen compare to Carol?**

*Eileen* and [*Carol*](https://film.one/film/carol) both follow a plain young woman drawn to an older, better-dressed one in mid-century America, but *Carol* stays a romance and *Eileen* changes into a thriller in its last third. *Carol* is the more complete film, sustained from first shot to last; *Eileen* has the sharper wit and the stranger, darker mind, but does not know what to do once it arrives. Choose *Carol* for feeling, *Eileen* for oddness.

**Is Eileen based on a true story or a book?**

*Eileen* is based on a novel, not a true story: Ottessa Moshfegh's book of the same name, which Moshfegh adapted for the screen with Luke Goebel. The script is good on the small humiliations of a shared office and a shared house, and weaker at the mechanics of a thriller. You do not need to have read the novel; the film's first hour works entirely on its own.

**What should I watch after Eileen?**

After *Eileen*, try [*Lady Macbeth*](https://film.one/film/lady-macbeth) (2016, Fi1m 80): Oldroyd’s first: Florence Pugh in a cold house, deciding what she is owed. Then [*Carol*](https://film.one/film/carol) (2015, Fi1m 88): A woman in a good coat walks into a shop and the 1950s tilt; and [*Heavenly Creatures*](https://film.one/film/heavenly-creatures) (1994, Fi1m 84): Two girls, one friendship, and a plan the adults never see coming.

### Reviews we read (27)

- **Variety**, Jessica Kiang (Critics Pick): The critic hails the deliciously deranged, genre-devouring portrait of perversity with career-high performances from Hathaway and McKenzie. It singles out the formal precision and blackly comedic power shifts that make the twisted psychodrama exhilarating. [Read](https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/eileen-review-anne-hathaway-thomasin-mckenzie-1235497966/)
- **The AV Club**, Murtada Elfadl (B+): The critic finds it a stylish wild ride and enthralling adaptation that keeps tension lively with committed performances, though not entirely satisfying. It is imaginatively conceived and beguiling with subtle beats. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/eileen-movie-review-anne-hathaway-thomasin-mckenzie-1851055981)
- **Evening Standard**, Nick Howells (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an erotic neo-noir about desire and liberation in which the protagonist's repressed urges are unleashed by a glamorous newcomer. McKenzie's performance is singled out as the standout for its depth and intoxication. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/eileen-movie-review-ottessa-moshfegh-anne-hathaway-thomasin-mckenzie-b1123011.html)
- **Little White Lies**, Katherine McLaughlin (4/4/4): The review commends the dark humour from the novel being well translated and the strong chemistry between the leads. It singles out the atmospheric 1960s setting with its disorientating festive colours and the film's exploration of repression and yearning. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/eileen)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the sleek, unnerving adaptation and especially Anne Hathaway's mesmerizing turn as the glamorous catalyst. It singles out the film's willingness to leave the protagonist's inner life partly ambiguous while delivering shocking reveals. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-11-30/eileen-review-anne-hathaway-thomasin-mckenzie)
- **Radio Times**, Patrick Cremona (4/5): The critic calls it a bleak but alluring noir thriller whose script translates the novel's feel impeccably. They single out the richly atmospheric mood created through period stylings and score, plus the ingenious third-act twist. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-rwhd1u/eileen/)
- **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (75/100, inferred): The adaptation is praised as a psychosexual thriller with visual restraint and period accuracy that explores feminine obsession and madness. Oldroyd is highlighted as a talented director whose work here is twisty, unpredictable and absorbing. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/eileen-review-anne-hathaway-goes-full-hitchcock-in-this-psychosexual-thriller-2783549)
- **Vulture** (70/100, inferred): The critic describes a slender but engaging feature that is as much drama as thriller, with Oldroyd coaxing strong performances; it is a bracing watch powered by the leads and a standout supporting turn, though ultimately a little thin. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-the-seductive-eileen-flirts-with-disaster.html)
- **Empire**, Yasmin Omar (35/100, inferred): The film is dismissed as a workaday neo-noir that starts with intriguing character dynamics but veers into unsatisfying conventional thriller territory. Hathaway is noted for brightening the proceedings, but the overall verdict calls it a limp genre exercise that prioritises B-movie thrills over nuance. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/eileen/)
- **Slant Magazine** (1/4): The critic sees it as a deliciously teasing queer noir that heats up alluringly with misdirected erotic energies, becoming a pulpy phantasmagoria of fear and desire offering visions of queer ecstasy within prisons. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/eileen-review-anne-hathaway-william-oldroyd/)
- **Film Comment**: The film makes its protagonist unknowable rather than unlikable, swirling a deliciously pulpy story around her with thrilling dark surprises. It adapts the book's flat narration into an ambient fury of sound and image, swerving from a Carol-esque desire story into seedy vengeance. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/sundance-2023-earth-mama-all-dirt-roads-eileen/)
- **IndieWire**, Ryan Lattanzio: The critic hails it as a darkly romantic adaptation that already feels close to iconic, with career-best turns from Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie in a perverse folie à deux. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/eileen-review-anne-hathaway-thomas-mckenzie-ottessa-moshfegh-1234802520/)
- **Screen Daily**: The review praises the lean, well-oiled noir tale of obsession that confirms the director's talent, with strong visual storytelling, 1960s evocation, taut plotting and central performances. It singles out the psychological thriller beats delivered with dark humour and style. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/eileen-sundance-review/5178362.article)
- **Sight and Sound**: The critic highlights the film's sickly, nicotine-yellow visual palette and its portrayal of a young woman's infatuation that shifts into violent thriller territory. They single out the textured contrast between glamour and grime, along with the lead performances. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/eileen-dark-enticing-heady-genre-blend)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The film is a peculiar misfire of a psycho-noir with solemn intensity and vehement performances from Hathaway and McKenzie, but it feels like an unsatisfying and anticlimactic oddity. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/29/eileen-review-anne-hathaway-is-vehement-in-solemnly-intense-psycho-noir)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney: The critic calls it a strange and spellbinding psychological thriller with sly humor and a bold command of Hitchcockian suspense tropes. Performances by Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway are expertly synced and bracing. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/eileen-review-thomasin-mckenzie-anne-hathaway-1235306461/)
- **The New York Times**, Alissa Wilkinson (Critic's Pick): The critic finds the adaptation delivers cathartic nastiness through its cold New England Christmas setting and the central relationship. It singles out the lead performances for bringing tension and unexpected liberation to the thriller. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/movies/eileen-review.html)
- **The Telegraph**: The handsome modern noir centres on an affair but lacks sexual tension and doesn't quite fly, though McKenzie holds it together and there are memorable images. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/eileen-review-anne-hathaway-thomasin-mckenzie/)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★☆☆☆): This is a deranged mish-mash and disappointing follow-up from Oldroyd, a confusing letdown with a ridiculous kidnap and torture plot. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/eileen-film-review-a-deranged-mish-mash-starring-anne-hathaway-qxt70s08g)
- **/Film**, Ben Pearson (9.5/10): The critic hails the film as a stylish, sexy, and disturbing stunner with extraordinary performances from Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie, praising its audacious twist and how it subverts expectations after a familiar setup. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1174823/eileen-review-anne-hathaway-lights-the-screen-on-fire-in-this-surprising-stunner-sundance/)
- **The Wrap**, Steve Pond (85/100, inferred): The critic calls the film one of the boldest provocations at Sundance, a blackly humorous riff on film noir and a tour de force for its cast. She singles out McKenzie’s precise calibration of the title character’s rich, weird depths and the bold moments given to the leads in the homestretch. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/eileen-review-thomasin-mckenzie-anne-hathaway/)
- **Deadline**, Valerie Complex (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an unsettling noir worth the wait as female loneliness and rage collide. She singles out the masterful lead performances, especially McKenzie’s switch from mousy to maniacal and Hathaway’s smoldering, flirtatious turn. [Read](https://deadline.com/2023/01/eileen-sundance-film-review-this-is-what-happens-1235236278/)
- **Polygon**, joshua-rivera (80/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a daring thriller that plays a guessing game with the audience through small twitches and passions, highlighting strong direction, performances, and ironic distance that invites speculation. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23990737/eileen-review-thomasin-mckenzie-anne-hathaway/)
- **The Playlist**, Tomris Laffly (B-): The review finds the film visually lush with terrific lead performances but criticizes its thin script and rushed pacing that undercuts the central relationship and leaves the story feeling underdeveloped despite a strong premise. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/eileen-review-a-slender-thriller-despite-its-gorgeous-looks-terrific-performances-from-anne-hathaway-thomasin-mckenzie-20230122/)
- **Collider**, Ross Bonaime: The critic praises the film's defiance of expectations through its sharp tonal shifts and strong performances, especially the chemistry between McKenzie and Hathaway, while noting the bare-bones story and abrupt ending. [Read](https://collider.com/eileen-review-anne-hathaway/)
- **Film Stories**, James Harvey: The critic praises the atmospheric neo-noir thriller and strong performances from Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway, noting its stylish visuals, score, and compelling mix of romance and tension, though the ending arrives abruptly. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/eileen-review-a-wonderfully-atmospheric-twisty-neo-noir/)
- **Paste**, Shayna Maci Warner (8.0): The critic calls it a truly nasty piece of queer work with visceral thrills, strong performances from Hathaway and McKenzie, and off-kilter sexy moments, but notes the twist leads to an atmospheric yet unsatisfactory close. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/sundance-2023/eileen-review)

## Details

- **Director:** William Oldroyd
- **Director:** William Oldroyd
- **Screenplay:** Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel
- **Novel:** Ottessa Moshfegh
- **Cinematography:** Ari Wegner
- **Editor:** Nick Emerson
- **Music:** Richard Reed Parry
- **Production design:** Craig Lathrop
- **Costume design:** Olga Mill
- **Producer:** Stefanie Azpiazu, Ottessa Moshfegh, Anthony Bregman
- **Cast:** Thomasin McKenzie as Eileen Dunlop; Anne Hathaway as Rebecca; Shea Whigham as Jim Dunlop; Sam Nivola as Lee Polk; Marin Ireland as Mrs. Polk; Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Mrs. Murray; Tonye Patano as Mrs. Stevens; William Hill as Intake Guard
- **Runtime:** 1h 38m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 8 December 2023
- **Genres:** Thriller, Crime
- **Budget:** $16 million
- **Box office:** $2 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otDHCJcdN34

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, CA, CL, CO, DK, EC, FI, FR, GB, IE, IT, JP, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, SE, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Lady Macbeth* (2016), Fi1m 80: Oldroyd’s first: Florence Pugh in a cold house, deciding what she is owed. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/lady-macbeth.md)
- *Carol* (2015), Fi1m 88: A woman in a good coat walks into a shop and the 1950s tilt. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/carol.md)
- *Heavenly Creatures* (1994), Fi1m 84: Two girls, one friendship, and a plan the adults never see coming. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/heavenly-creatures.md)
- *Repulsion* (1965), Fi1m 88: A young woman alone in a flat, her daydreams leaking into the furniture. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/repulsion.md)
- *La Cérémonie* (1995): Chabrol’s two provincial women, a big house, and a friendship going somewhere bad.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/eileen