The Housemaid
"The Housemaid" is tawdry trash that critic Alec Toombs decidedly gives a pass.
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I haven’t read Freida McFadden’s best-selling novel “The Housemaid,” but was definitely intrigued by trailers for the adaptation (now in theaters) as they made the production look like a Lifetime movie on steroids – and it is that for both good and ill, but with additional kink and thrill.
Sydney Sweeney stars as Millie Calloway, a young woman who’s had a really rough go of it. She’s just gotten out of jail after doing 10 years of a 15-year murder beef. She has a parole officer named Pam (Sarah Cooper) with whom she has to maintain contact by providing a stable address and work information. Neither of which Millie has as she’s been between jobs and living out of her car.
Opportunity knocks when the affluent, Great Neck, N.Y.-based Winchester family consisting of Nina (Amanda Seyfried), Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and their daughter Cece (Indiana Elle) are searching for a housemaid. Millie lands an interview with Nina, which she aces and quickly accepts the live-in gig.
Nina’s initially very warm and welcoming to Millie, but this veneer quickly vanishes with employer acting increasingly erratic toward employee.
“The Housemaid” finds comedic director Paul Feig (he was in the Melissa McCarthy biz for a hot minute) working in a far more serious milieu that’s more akin to his “A Simple Favor” franchise, but better (at least over the first one – I’ve yet to see the second) while still being campy and decidedly darkly funny.
The three primary actors Sweeney, Sklenar and especially Seyfried all do a bang-up job. There are moments here where Seyfried is a hop, skip and a jump away from freaking out about wire hangers like she’s Faye Dunaway playing Joan Crawford in “Mommie Dearest.”
I could see some folks being offended by the film as it arguably makes light of mental health struggles and spousal abuse to propel its pulpy plot. It’s also kind of strange to see women building each other up and breaking each other down in equal measure. I found the flick to be lots of things – immoral, sexy, sleazy – but at the end of the day it’s mostly just really damned entertaining and sometimes that’s enough.