‘The Housemaid’ trailer
The trailer for “The Housemaid” starring Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar. Director: Paul Feig.
Deception can be its own art form on the big screen, if done right. Otherwise it can be quite a job. The latter was what it felt like to watch “The Housemaid.”
The relationship between Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) and Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) was completely based on deceit. The film opens with Millie sitting down for an interview with Nina as the family’s live-in maid. Millie presents herself as an overqualified job candidate, but in reality she is living out of her car and struggling to find work because she is on parole from a prison sentence she was serving. She doesn’t even need the glasses she wore to the job interview and she made up everything on her resume. That’s why she was shocked to get the job.
Meanwhile, Nina presents herself as a bubbly, well-groomed mother who keeps her luxurious home tidy. But when Millie shows up for her first day at work, the house is a complete mess and Nina is completely absent-minded.
‘WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KIVES OUT MYSTERY’ REVIEW: DANIEL CRAIG Returns to Solve a Murder in a Star-Studded Sequel
Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester and Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in ‘The Housemaid’. (Courtesy of Lionsgate)
Millie has various tasks, such as cleaning, cooking and picking up Nina’s snobbish daughter Cici (Indiana Elle) from ballet class. Pretty normal stuff, right? But what is not exactly normal is Millie’s living situation. Nina puts her in perhaps the sketchiest guest room; a small attic with a small window that doesn’t open and a door that locks from the outside. Millie immediately asks for a key and a new window and Nina admits that the optics are bad, jokingly saying, “What kind of monsters are we?”
Nina’s hiring decision comes as a surprise to Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), her dreamy husband who quickly creeps into Millie’s fantasies.
‘HAMNET’ REVIEW: JESSIE BUCKLEY, PAUL MESCAL LEAD MOVING SHAKESPEARE FAMILY DRAMA
Brandon Sklenar as Andrew Winchester and Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester in ‘The Housemaid’. (Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate)
It doesn’t take long for Millie to realize that Nina is a real lunatic, going crazy when she accuses her new maid of losing her much-needed PTA notes for a meeting she’s attending. Andrew manages to calm her down, but Nina harbors a contemptuous grudge against Millie that only grows. However, Andrew shows her kindness.
What unfolds is like peeling an onion with plot twist after plot twist. And a story-dominated second act meant to turn everything upside down seems more like a creative cop-out. Instead of naturally feeling increasing anxiety, I found myself chuckling at the increasing absurdity.
‘ZOOTOPIA 2’ REVIEW: DISNEY’S ANIMATED CRIME CAPTURE OFFERS FUN FOR THE LITTLE CREATURES
Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway and Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester in ‘The Housemaid’. (Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate)
Sweeney and Sklenar have one main goal: to be sexy on screen. That they accomplish. Their performances don’t offer much else, although they are most enjoyable in the third act. Seyfried goes all in as the apparently crazy Nina.
Paul Feig, best known for directing comedies like “Bridesmaids,” has been getting a thriller itch since 2018’s “A Simple Favor,” whatever this is trying to be. “A Simple Favor,” however, is much better, with a complicated plot and well-deserved laughs. “The Housemaid,” an adaptation of Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel, comes across as a campy Lifetime soap opera that gets laughs for all the wrong reasons.
‘WICKED: FOR GOOD’ REVIEW: ARIANA GRANDE, CYNTHIA ERIVO WORK THEIR MAGIC IN A DARKER FINAL ACT
Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in ‘The Housemaid’.
The verdict:
There may be a demographic that will eat it up, but “The Housemaid” is a mess of a movie that Sweeney and Seyfried can’t clean up despite their best efforts. On a scale between setting the table and scrubbing a filthy toilet, this is closer to taking out the trash.
★½ — SKIP
“The Housemaid” is rated R for strong/gory violent content, sexual assault, sexual content, nudity and language. Running time: 2 hours and 11 minutes. Now in cinemas.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
