Eileen (2023) Movie Review

[@letmeknowhowthatgoes]

The ending is perfect. A seminal part of the movie is when Eileen's dad tells her, "Some people make moves, and others are just there - you are one of the ones who's just there." And he's right, because victims of abusive alcoholics tend to lack identity, direction, self-worth, and a moral compass. It's her self-fulfilling prophecy by proxy. At the end of the movie, Eileen smiles because she believes she has risen above and is now a "mover" (like Rebecca), and she's excited for what comes next in her journey. We need only imagine her impending doom.

[@tjallen8024]

I'm about to watch this in about 1 hour! Today is my birthday too!!! I hope I love it!!!!❤

[@MoviesAndMunchies]

Happy Birthday!! I hope you enjoy it too!! 🎂🎁🎉

[@nevskislake]

I was curious about this adaptation, soi I am glad you reviewed this film, Chris. I am still not sure what I think of the novel. I maybe loved the idea of it more than the execution, BUT I felt absolutely unsettled the whole time I was reading it, and I appreciate that. It also sounds like movie Eileen is more likable than her book counterpart.

[@Madikkensin]

The last part of the novel was, well not great. Was a shame,

[@erikramaekers63]

The award winning novelist of the book wrote the screenplay for this great film noir.

[@drewmcgill5290]

Saw this earlier today and loved it.

[@rapidfirerob4]

Great film. I would have liked the film to be a bit longer too, but clearly the filmakers wanted to leave it unsettled and for us to think about it. The book is on the way to my house.

[@JackKirbyFan]

Hey Chris, I'm kind of curious now how you got started in this. You do such great work, I'm suspecting you are a writer yourself. Either way, well done.

[@asan1050]

He used to be a belly dancer but wasn't making ends meet, but loved movies and videos.

[@jadedavis822]

Ending very disappointing

[@eddybrock227]

Chris are you reviewing May December?

[@brianng8350]

Seems consistent with the little reviews I saw. Was looking forward to the 2 leads, but I think I missed the theater window or it had a limited release. Will probably catch later on streaming or something.

[@kevliao]

I just finished reading the book. Believe it or not, this is the first time where I'll have read the source material before watching the movie, as it's a short read. I was wondering how they'd adopt the story for the screen, as the main "twist" happens in the last few pages of the book. It sounds like the movie has the same setup.

[@MoviesAndMunchies]

That's interesting that the book also has the abrupt ending... at least the movie was faithful to the source!

[@Allgloss312]

For me i didnt think it adapted well to screen at all…. Its basically just an abridged version of the book thats lacking a lot of depth. Removed from eileens inner monologue, there just isnt a lot of depth to the story. And i found it interesting how theres a lot of scenes (and even whole subplots) that are cut in the movie that add a lot to eileens character development and i found it puzzling why they didnt at least keep some of these things in. Its not a plot heavy book, so without this intense introspection on who eileen is and what she thinks and feels, there wasnt much to keep the story going. Just made me want to reread the book lol and my mom who saw it with me and never read the book found it boring as well. I think its a very faithful adaptation, but i dont think eileen is a story that adapts very well to screen. I do think some books are just better as books and eileen (and a lot of these other strange plot lite literary fiction books) often just dont translate to the screen well regardless of who is behind the camera.

[@joaodecarvalho7012]

Thomasin McKenzie is so cute.

[@TheJakescott1515]

I binged all of blue eye samurai it was pretty dang good

[@moomoopuppy508]

When Evil Lurks was a pretty gruesome horror movie from Argentina...really gory.

[@gunnhildk6299]

"Last night in Soho" is another great movie with Thomasin Mc Kenzie. One of my favorite movies. Eileen was a bit disapointing to me, becauce I expected it to be a lesbian story. But the lesbianism from Rebecca could just be manipulation, and nothing more. So I thougth it would be something it was not. Like a darker version of "Carol". Still, it was a good story and movie. I think Eileen managed to escape her miserable life in the end.

[@Acme633]

Was it really deliberately ambiguous and the film trying to generate mystery, or was it just a bad script? I didn't read the source material but what happened in the film made no sense. What was supposed to be one of the surprises - what happened between the boy with his father - I actually suspected at the very beginning. What really surprised me was that a Brokeback relationship did not develop. But what most of the characters did seem inconsistent (as you said) or just made no sense. It seemed that scenes in the film had been cut or truncated randomly. Rebecca was a "mysterious" character simply because we knew nothing about her background and motives. Why was she pushing the boy's mother so hard? We don't even see Rebecca at the end, and you can form any guess regarding what happened. As for the titular character, I have to admit that I don't really get what her problem was to begin with either. Why doesn't she just find a boyfriend?

[@gratefulblac]

saw it last night - a masterpiece of feminist noir!

[@thatssomething1]

Yeah movie sucked..let down and unravels towards the end and ends with a yawning thud..what inspired the director to use this source material and not good direction at all and why did Anne and others get involved?..who knows..anyways apart from some nice cinematography (I thought the soundtrack score was nice at first but starts over the course of the film starts to become overused and overbearing, not a good sign when the music is leaned on more to carry the scenes) I wasted some time I'll never get back ha..🤨😆👎

[@misaelmuniz7418]

Read the book 📕 is so good 😅

[@sowo7136]

@misaelmuniz7418 does the book also have an open end??

[@jadapandy]

I haven't heard anything good about this movie. Beloved books turned into films are rarely good.

[@Aceofspades299]

The author of the book wrote the screenplay, she was clearly very passionate about converting it to film. And when is a 7/10 a bad score? I gave Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon a 7 and they are both extremely solid films

[@LeoTheShortGuy]

Cool

[@loladiaz3534]

i’m intrigued !!! listen Chris. are you watching A MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORD!!!! ????? please do and share your reviews. i think there are only 2 episodes left!! this is your kind of series 😊