And those two worlds necessarily collide. Rebecca plays by the rules of her own design. Eileen conforms to the male-dominated worldview where she serves her father and colleagues, suppressing whatever desires she might have had before she returned home. On the other hand, McKenzie distills the naïve façade with a latent neuroticism that is a ticking time bomb. Hathaway plays the role of Rebecca as a woman with secrets and an agenda. Eileen takes that as a cue to gravitate towards her new co-worker with radiant sex appeal. Rebecca seems to be the only person who acknowledges Eileen's existence, develops social interactions with her. Eileen starts to pay more attention to how she looks and less to her spiteful father. Rebecca St John radiates through Eileen's grey days and returns the juice into her life. While the book is more of a psychological thriller, Goebel and Oldroyd go for a solid 'show don't tell', making the film more plot-driven, especially after the arrival of a new co-worker, Rebecca St John (Anne Hathaway), a Marilyn Monroe-sque femme fatale. The father is the last thing that keeps Eileen in the aimless life, where she is wasting away, working as a secretary at a juvenile prison. Kicked out of the police force for drinking, Eileen's father continues to drown his sorrows in alcoholic binges and creates scenes by toting guns on the street. She returned home to care for her ill mother, and after her death, she remained to babysit her father Jim Dunlop (Shea Whigham). The story follows the mousy eponymous protagonist Eileen Dunlop (Thomasin McKenzie), living in a small Massachusetts town, who is living an uninspiring existence in the 1960s. The difference between the two films that premiered at the same festival proves that it is better to cut down than to add when it comes to literary adaptation.Įileen is an honest adaptation that remains faithful to the novella. (Unlike Cat Person.) The fact that Moshfegh worked on the script with Goebel might have contributed to the fidelity. Lady Macbeth director William Oldroyd helmed the film based on Luke Goebel's script, which remains surprisingly true to the source material. It happened and worked out, as Moshfegh became an established (and marketable) voice in the turbulent publishing industry. Moshfegh's first book drew ire because she said she wanted to see if she could 'write a mainstream book a normal person could read'. This year's Sundance Film Festival introduced adaptations of Roupenian's short story Cat Person and Moshfegh's award-festooned debut novella Eileen. The words of Sally Rooney, Kristen Roupenian, and Ottessa Moshfegh have materialized into moving pictures. The most notable female authors of the young generation are receiving big- and small-screen treatment for their work.

Eileen ottessa moshfegh review