Film Review: The Housemaid

Filmmaker Paul Feig is known for his progressive films where females take centre stage. From Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy and even Last Christmas, his filmography proves he has an eye for putting women in a strong leading role. Feig is deviating for his latest project. The man usually in charge of directing comedies has decided to take on a drama film, and one that is based on a very popular novel. The Housemaid is the name of the book and the film and expectations are sky high for it to succeed.

Brandon Sklenar is no stranger to movie adaptions of books as he starred in It Ends With Us the other year. His handsome image and masculine tone has proven him to be an irresistible lead actor in romantic stories. He was also recently seen in Drop earlier this year. He plays the husband in this drama, but it is more about the wife and the titular Housemaid, with Amanda Seyfried as Nina, the wife, and Sydney Sweeney as Millie, the housemaid. The narrative shifts perspective a few times in the film from Millie’s perspective to Nina’s perspective, and the narrative actually works very similarly to the film Gone Girl. As someone who never read the book, you can easily see how this story was written for the page and it is translated a little poorly with little care to structure but the surprises and twists keep it engaging.

The story is pretty simple to start with. Millie is looking for a job and she comes across to this advert to be a live-in Housemaid at the Winchester’s. Nina and Andrew hire her to look after the house and their daughter, Cece. What follows is a rather tense rabbit-hole story where the story and tone shifts and turns very regularly. There’s comedy, romance, drama and even some thriller aspects to the story too. Paul Feig has worked with many genres before but splicing together all of these just doesn’t work all to well at times. There is a lot of surprises and after a key reveal half-way through the film, the story shifts yet again to something more sinister. Luckily it holds your interest but you do lose sight of the bigger plot at a few moments.

Sydney Sweeney is one of the biggest stars in cinema at the moment. From Anyone But You, Madame Web, Eden and Christy all released within the last year or so, she is slowly becoming somewhat of an icon for a modern Marilyn Monroe. She is more than capable of acting, even though there is a lot to be said about the kind of gaze she attracts, but she is picked for her roles for a select number of reasons. Half of the film she plays it safe playing the same character she usually plays but then after the midway point she becomes more fierce and confident in her character. The star of the film is Amanda Seyfried who does a fantastic job at conveying nearly every emotion possible in the film. It is only when the ending comes around that you start to notice the nuances in her performance and understand why she played the character as well as she did. For these performances alone, the film holds up pretty well.

Overall, the film feels like a book adaption, and take that as you will, but that works both for and against itself. The tone is slippery and the acting is hit and miss, but it has plenty of entertainment and shock value. Brandon Sklenor does a decent job at playing a husband who looks like the hottest man in the world right now, but in the latter half he really lets his acting shine through more and you see a completely different side to him as an actor. The Housemaid relies a lot on its narrative and shock value to bring in audiences, as well as star power, and it works but it may not have that lingering legacy that you would expect from a film of this calibre.

★★★☆☆

3/5

Final Verdict:

The Housemaid is a three-hander between Sklenor, Seyfried and Sweeney. All three juggle different characters in different ways. It starts very generic and boring but soon dives deep into a narrative that twists around itself. It is pretty entertaining, but somewhat cheesy in places, and it holds your attention from start to finish. The unpredictable nature of the story is what makes it all the more compelling, but the final result is something that could have been better told.

Thanks for reading today’s blog!

Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions