The Housemaid (15)

Thirty-something ex-con Millie Calloway has served her time for a righteous crime - in her eyes. She applies for a position as housemaid to Long Island housewife Nina Winchester using bogus CV references. Miraculously, she lands the job and is thrilled to live in the Winchester family's attic as she cooks, cleans and tends to Nina, her husband Andrew and their young daughter Cecelia.

LondonNet Film Review

The Housemaid (15) Film Review from LondonNet

About 90 minutes into The Housemaid, A Simple Favour ringmaster Paul Feig’s psychological thriller adapted from the first book of Freida McFadden’s series of novels, the penny drops. With the most delectable and satisfying kerching. Until that narrative handbrake turn, we’ve been backseat passengers to a campy erotic potboiler about a down-on-her-luck heroine walking into the middle of a failing marriage and inadvertently positioning herself as the wealthy husband’s new mistress. Once Feig and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine gear shift into delightfully deranged brinkmanship, anyone could end the film neatly enclosed within a white chalk outline…

Thirty-something ex-con Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) has served her time for a righteous crime – in her eyes. She is on parole and looking for a job that will pay enough so she doesn’t have to live out of her car and wash each morning in public restrooms. Millie applies for a position as housemaid to Long Island housewife Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) using bogus CV references that could easily be debunked with a few telephone calls and emails. “I really enjoy being a housemaid… for the right family of course,” coos Millie during the interview with the lady of the house.

Miraculously, Millie lands the job and is thrilled to live in the Winchester family’s attic as she cooks, cleans and tends to Nina, her husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and their young daughter Cecelia (Indiana Elle), who oozes disdain beyond her tender years. Wife Nina exhibits wild mood swings that force Andrew to step in to protect Millie. The attraction between the married man and employee is palpable and Millie tries to resist self-sabotaging a job that pays well and keeps her on parole. Tension builds inside the gated home and enigmatic Italian groundskeeper Enzo (Michele Morrone) watches the unfolding tragedy from afar.

The Housemaid recalls lurid thrillers from the early 1990s and Feig clearly draws on his experience from A Simple Favour and its disappointing sequel to crank up the antagonism between feisty and resourceful female characters with markedly different bank balances. Sweeney and Seyfried are well matched. Adding some spice to the cocktail, Elizabeth Perkins sharpens her lacquered nails for a lacerating supporting performance as Andrew’s mother, who clearly doesn’t think any woman will be good enough for her boy.

Ignorance truly is bliss if you haven’t read McFadden’s book and aren’t prepared for the narrative rug pull that screenwriter Sonnenshine engineers with lip-smacking glee by returning to a seemingly throwaway scene and airing the extended version without editor Brent White’s timely intervention. Pacing sags as the film withholds its big reveal for longer than necessary but the final half hour is a shudder-inducing hallucination that takes any preconceptions to the cleaners.

– Kim Hu