Anne Hathaway: "Eileen"

People say it's more fun to consider bad manners than good manners, and so we have the film "Eileen."

In this script, Eileen works at a boys' detention center and masturbates in the evening. She parks her car near a lovers' lane, brings herself close to climax, then stuffs snow between her legs, as a kind of punishment. Back at the office, she mixes up forms and, too often, she daydreams. She has dropped out of school--but she thinks, even with a college diploma, she would have become a secretary. "I think I'm just meant to be a secretary."

But a stranger comes to town; it's Rebecca, a rebel doctor from Harvard, and Rebecca doesn't like passivity. She is perhaps too empathetic with the patients at the detention center; she sides with the boys, all the time, and she "forgets" about certain disciplinary protocols. She wants Eileen to leave her job and maybe map out a bohemian life; she says, "I bet you have wonderful dreams." And she thinks that heavy drinking and violence are sometimes good ideas; in her presence, you tend to stumble on bar fights and puddles of vomit.

What happens between Eileen and Rebecca is so startling that I made a loud noise in the theater.

I liked this movie in part because it's the closest thing we have to Hitchcock in this Christmas season, and because it lets Anne Hathaway go nuts. She seems to have studied Cate Blanchett, in "Carol"--which is an entertaining choice. Marin Ireland is riveting, as well. I had a great time.

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