I was engaged at first. Thomasin McKenzie does a good job and then Anne Hathaway makes a dramatic entrance and keeps the viewer's attention. The chemistry between them is good. Shea Whigham does a convincing job as the alcoholic father. Marin Ireland also has a very good scene. But the pacing is SO painfully slow. That's all right if you are slowly building tension and then deliver some big payoff but Eileen offers neither. So many needless scenes. Eileen almost looks in Rebecca's medicine cabinet but doesn't. Eileen fantasizes about standing near a lake. Why? Who cares! Eileen's character is well-drawn but Rebecca is a bit of a caricature: Part Cate Blanchett in Carol, part Nicole Kidman in To Die For. It offered just barely enough to keep me watching. Then it takes a weird twist. Then there is no payoff and no ending. There were pieces of a good movie in there but it definitely did not live up to its potential. Instead, it was a slow, boring, indulgent mess in need of editing and a final act. I consider it to have been a waste of 97 minutes.
Review of Eileen
