The Housemaid follows Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney), a down-on-her-luck ex-convict hired by a wealthy woman named Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) to be their housemaid.
Millie’s task is as straightforward as it gets: clean, cook, run errands, and do whatever the mistress of the house wants. In return for her service, she will fulfill her parole conditions, be paid, and get to live in the Winchester mansion. Nina also seems like a kind and sweet lady. Her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), is equally, if not more, charming and considerate than she is. Then their daughter, Cece (Indiana Elle), who is someone Millie will need time to get acquainted with. Overall, the Winchester family appears to be a generous and perfect family.
But then.
On her second day, Millie wakes up to find Nina panicking and ransacking everything in the kitchen. She then vehemently accuses Millie of throwing away her notes for a speech at a PTA meeting. Millie is obviously bewildered. Nina’s treatment of her suddenly changes.
As she tries to navigate Nina’s erratic mood swings, she finds an ally in Andrew, who not only knows how to calm Nina down, but also connects with her on a deeper level. However, getting involved with Andrew feels dangerous and Millie must be careful with her every move because Nina is always watching her closely.
The Housemaid has fun moments. Most of them come from Amanda Seyfried’s Nina. She’s beautiful, charming, and elegant with her pastel or light neutral tailored dresses and huge diamond ring, embodying the ‘perfect wealthy housewife’ image. But she’s also very volatile and fragile. One moment she’s sweet, then the next thing we know she has already manipulated Millie into a trap for some petty reason. Her unpredictability, plus Amanda giving her all to this character, adds a lot of flavor and layers to the narrative, making us love her more than we should hate her.
On the other hand, Sydney Sweeney is not as bad as what reviews say. In fact, I think her being reactive and showing a limited range of emotion aligns perfectly with her character’s past as an ex-convict. She has to comply because she is homeless, penniless, and jobless. Simply put, she’s desperate. To add to all that, she’s in a situation where one wrong move or reaction could destroy everything she has built so far. If there is any issue with her acting, the criticism should fall on the limited material she has to work with. Overall, I think she did just fine.
As for Brandon Sklenar as Andrew, he’s okay. I honestly think anybody could play his role. He looks like he is in on the lunacy of this story though, so that is a plus.
All things considered, The Housemaid is enjoyable. But it’s one level less than it needs to be. It just needs to push a little bit more.
The vibe of the film is not of a ‘true’ thriller, but more of melodrama with some erotic romance and a lot of unexpected twists and turns. The story is pretty unserious and it knows it. And if that is the case, then the next thing you would want from the film is to commit to its silliness. For most of the time, it does. It looks like it is aiming for camp. But then it wants you to take these campy moments seriously for some reason. It gives the impression that it’s still very careful about how far it can make things zany for it does not want to lose the audience. Because of that, there are tone shifts and narrative decisions that feel uncalled for.
The Housemaid is an adaptation of the Freida McFadden book of the same name. It is also the first of a trilogy. With all of its box office success (and probably streaming success as well) a second and third film might already be in Lionsgate’s pipeline. Honestly, based on what I saw here, I am excited and intrigued to watch the next films.
3.5/5