The Nature of Things

Eleanor Oliphant is most definitely not completely fine. Certainly not when we first meet her. Early on we become aware that something terrible happened to Eleanor in her childhood, something involving fire that has left her both physically and psychologically scarred. She is now thirty years old and she is isolated, lonely, alone. She has no friends or family. We learn that after "the incident" she grew up in foster homes and a group care home but she evidently never managed to make any kind of familial connection with any of the people she met along the way. Eleanor has no social skills, no artifice, and no filter. She says what she thinks and is essentially unaware of its effect on others. Eleanor has worked for nine years as an accountant in a graphic design firm in Glasgow and has never been absent from work for one day. She has an inflexible routine which she follows slavishly. She is a figure of derision for her coworkers. After work, she goes home to the small apart...