Writers’ HQ | Plotstormers Breakdown: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine By Gail Honeyman.

See how Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine By Gail Honeyman squares up against Plotstormers and the Magical Sixteen Point Plan Of Your Dreams.

Spoiler palooza ahead!

A bit of backstory

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was a massive multi-bestseller back in 2017 after being sold for a “high six figure” deal in four rounds of bidding. Author Gail Honeyman finished the book while working full time, writing after work and in lunch breaks, and then quit her job to finish editing. On release, film rights were immediately snapped up by Reese Witherspoon. What a whirlwind!

The story

Eleanor Oliphant is an awkward, spiky recluse who doesn’t understand a whole lot about doing humaning. She has a strict, grey routine, and her work colleagues find her dull and peculiar. On the weekends she gets blind drunk on vodka and never speaks to a single person.

She becomes obsessed with an arrogant singer, while bumbling IT guy Raymond befriends her. When she realises that the dickhead singer is a dickhead, and confused by the little moments of care and kindness shown to her by Raymond, all her past traumas come crashing down and she tries to kill herself.

She’s saved by Raymond and ends up in therapy where repressed memories of a terrible childhood emerge, in which her abusive mother tried to murder Eleanor and her sister, and succeeded in the latter. Through therapy and Raymond’s humanness, she slowly understands that the past is not her fault and begins to build something of a contented life.

This is a broadly linear story with key points often told in flashback or with foreshadowing. It’s also something of a masterclass in the three act format. So let’s have a look at how the story works, Plotstormers-styleee:

The Four Point Plan

Reclusive, prickly Eleanor Oliphant goes to a gig and sees the man of her dreams – the lead singer in a small-town band. How can she ever attract his attention?
Eleanor sets herself a project: research the singer, and make herself into the kind of woman he’d like.
The singer ignores Eleanor and she realises he’s actually a pillock. She plunges into shame and comes close to killing herself. She’s rescued by a workmate, Raymond.
With Raymond’s support and affection, Eleanor is able to face her real problems: her abusive childhood and her loneliness.

The Seven Point Plan

Reclusive, prickly Eleanor Oliphant goes to a gig and sees the man of her dreams – the lead singer in a small-town band. She believes she’s doing fine on her own, but she needs to appease her critical mother by finding an ‘appropriate’ partner. Eleanor ‘researches’, aka stalks, the singer, Johnnie. But how can she ever get his attention?
Eleanor has burn scars on her face, and her mother has always told her she’s ugly and freakish. She’s never looked after her appearance, because she doesn’t see the point. The singer is handsome and will want someone equally attractive. Has she any hope?
Eleanor ventures out of her comfort zone to try some treatments she’s heard are beautifying: a wax, a manicure, a makeover, a haircut, some new clothes. She researches how to behave at bars and gigs by going to them with a workmate, IT guy Raymond, who is strangely keen on hanging out with her.
Eleanor goes to Johnnie’s gig in all her finery, and realises 1. He’s a dick, and 2. Her fantasies of being noticed and swept off her feet by him are ludicrous. She feels ashamed and hopeless, and goes home to drink bottle after bottle of vodka while deciding whether to kill herself.
Raymond comes to check on her and is horrified to find her in such a state. He cares for her and gets her to go to the GP, who refers her to a therapist. In therapy, Eleanor remembers suppressed details of her childhood with an abusive mother who tried to kill her and her sister. She survived, but her sister died. She feels terribly guilty. Can she ever forgive herself?
Eleanor comes to understand that what happened to her and her sister was not her fault. She realises her scorn for the people and the world around her comes from her mother, who criticises everyone, and that she is not fine, but lonely. She stops contact with her mother for good.
Eleanor forms a loving relationship with Raymond which may be platonic, or may be romantic. She has learned to look after herself, forgive herself, and connect with other people.

The Big One: The Sixteen Point Plan

Eleanor Oliphant is reclusive and prickly. She’s not lonely, she just despises the world and everyone in it. Her life is a routine of work, drinking through the weekend, then work again, interrupted only by the occasional upsetting conversation with her mother. When she goes to a gig and sees singer Johnnie Lomond on the stage, she realises he’s just the kind of man her mother would approve of: tall, handsome, ‘gentlemanly’.
Johnnie may be the perfect man, but Eleanor doesn’t see anything in herself to attract him. She’s got burn scars on her face, and her mother has always told her she’s ugly and freakish. While she’s thinking her problem over, we meet Raymond, the work IT guy who comes to fix her computer. Raymond’s easy-going and kind, but Eleanor sees a slob: not at all the kind of man her mother would approve of.
Eleanor and Raymond are walking home from work when they see an old man, Sammy, collapse. They help him get to the hospital. We see Eleanor’s poor understanding of people in the way that she speaks to Sammy and Raymond. Still, she ends up spending more time with the two of them, and with Sammy and Raymond’s loving families. She experiences affection and care for the first time. She tells Raymond about her last boyfriend, who beat her. We see that she has no model for a loving relationship.
Eleanor comes across a poster advertising a gig by the band. This is her chance! She decides to go down and try to meet the singer.
Eleanor goes and gets a makeover at a beauty counter, in preparation for the gig. She believes she must transform herself, inside and out, to be acceptable to her crush. When she goes to the gig, she finds it’s sold out. She has to wait for another chance.
Sammy dies. When Eleanor thinks of the impact on his family, she’s reminded of painful events from her past. We see that she has formed a connection with Sammy, and we see her reaching out to Raymond for emotional support. At the funeral, she gets very drunk and is hit on by a predatory man. Raymond defends her. Eleanor opens up more to Raymond, telling him that her scars are from escaping a house fire, aged ten. She reveals that the fire was started deliberately, and afterwards she was taken into care. Raymond is empathetic.
Eleanor goes to a second gig, and this time she’s bought a ticket in advance. She’s decided – she can’t keep on living as a ghost. She has to make something happen, make Johnnie notice her. She dresses up in her new clothes and makeup and stands at the front of the crowd.
Eleanor realises that Johnnie has no idea she’s there. Reality crashes in: she’s built a fantasy that she’ll get together with Johnnie and he’ll be the ideal man, and all the pain of her past will be gone. She wanted someone to help her to deal with her mother, but it’s never going to happen. She’s stricken with shame.
Johnnie is actually awful. Watching him with new eyes, she realises he’s shallow, vain and unpleasant. She starts drinking heavily.
The smoke machine in the venue starts blowing out smoke, and Eleanor has a flashback to the house fire. She relives her escape from the blaze, and her terrible feelings of guilt.
Devastated, Eleanor goes home and drinks bottle after bottle of vodka, ready either to kill herself with alcohol, or with the pills she’s hoarded.
Raymond comes and checks on her, having noticed she’s been absent from work. He finds her in a terrible state. He throws away the booze and pills and cares for her, cleaning her flat and bringing her food.
Raymond tells Eleanor to go to the GP, who signs her off work and refers her to a therapist. Eleanor goes to the therapist, defying her mother’s orders to tell no-one about her childhood.
In therapy, Eleanor retrieves memories of her little sister, whose existence she has repressed. She remembers that she tried to take care of her sister, who was the only person in her life who loved her. When their mother started the fire, Eleanor escaped but didn’t save her sister. She feels terrible guilt, but the therapist helps her to understand that none of what happened is her fault.
Once Eleanor has remembered her sister and accepted the idea that their mother was responsible for what happened to her, she decides she can’t have her mother in her life any longer. She finally tells her that she will never speak to her again. She realises that her mother is powerless, and she is free. Eleanor decides to ask for a copy of her file from Social Services and read it all, so that she can understand and come to terms with everything about what happened to her as a child.
Eleanor is still a wounded and awkward character, but she is no longer ruled by her mother’s contemptuous voice. She is reconnected to the human world by her relationship with Raymond, Raymond’s mother, and Sammy’s family. She finds connections with her workmates and boss, and realises she is loved and valued.