Opening in theaters on December 19 is ‘The Housemaid,’ directed by Paul Feig and starring Amanda Seyfried, Sydney Sweeney, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Indiana Elle, Megan Ferguson, Ellen Tamaki, and Elizabeth Perkins.
GsEuTFbxsQ15dmyjh1tr77Related Article: Sydney Sweeney to Star in ‘That Man from Rio’ for Director Justin Lin
Initial Thoughts
Too often these days, a trailer for a new movie sells you a different experience than the one you eventually end up seeing – making something darker look funnier than it is, for example. There’s no such problem with ‘The Housemaid’: based on the best-selling novel by Freida McFadden, director Paul Feig’s adaptation is exactly what it promises: a campy, twisty psychological thriller, laced with laughs and a narrative that almost makes fun of itself – until it doesn’t.
Feig – who seems to find his best groove lately with potboilers like this and ‘A Simple Favor’ – navigates the story’s twists and turns mostly successfully, aided by his trio of lead performers. While the film’s third act spins off the rails a bit in terms of tone and control, it still manages to be entertaining, with a crowd-pleaser of an ending that will send audiences out satiated.
Story and Direction
Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) applies for a job as a live-in housemaid with Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), a seemingly pleasant if high-strung homemaker who lives in her extravagant Long Island mansion with her rather cheeky daughter Cici (Indiana Elle) and handsome, charming, and effortlessly attentive husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar).
Millie, despite lying about her background and hiding the fact that she’s sleeping in her car and on parole after serving 10 years in prison, gets the job – only to find out once she starts that Nina is hiding a few secrets of her own, including the fact that she spent nine months in a psych ward for reasons revealed much later. Right off the part, Nina’s mood swings and capriciously cruel treatment of Millie indicate that something is wrong, along with the suspicious behavior of the groundskeeper, Enzo (Michele Morrone, from Netflix’s ‘365 Days’ sexathons). Luckily, Andrew is there to comfort Millie – even if his lingering glances indicate that he wants more than that.
For much of its first two-thirds, ‘The Housemaid’ follows a seemingly conventional narrative almost to a fault, but the go-for-broke performances from its leads, precision needle drops, and Feig’s skillful balancing act of camp and psychological cat-and-mouse keep it thoroughly engaging. The world of wealth and privilege that the Winchesters inhabit is also roasted quite handily, thanks to Andrew’s almost ridiculously snooty mother (Elizabeth Perkins) and the local housewives, who at one point gossip about Nina after she leaves the room – even though Millie, who is all but invisible to them, is still there and can hear everything.
‘The Housemaid’ becomes predictable enough at a certain point that it almost screams that a twist is coming – one that is more or less telegraphed – and when that rug-pull is revealed, the movie tumbles into some surprisingly darker territory. It’s in the final third that Feig and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine lose some of their grip on the material, diverging a bit from the book and stretching things out a bit too long with one betrayal or turnaround after another. Yet ‘The Housemaid’ still wraps up nicely, its conclusion both satisfying and leaving the door open for a continuation (McFadden did write two follow-up novels).
Cast and Performances
‘The Housemaid’ opens one week before ‘The Testament of Ann Lee,’ also starring Amanda Seyfried, and you’re not likely to see two more different performances in theaters this year. That’s a compliment to the immense range of Seyfried, who plays Nina as an unpredictable weather pattern whose next ferocious storm will be followed just as quickly by a brief ray of sunshine. She keeps the audience off-balance throughout with a broad-strokes, jangling energy and does pampered housewife just as well as she does colonial religious leader.
Sweeney is more low-key as a counterpoint, and a bit more limited in her range here than in her underrated ‘Christy’ from earlier this fall, but her seemingly submissive surface seethes subtly with a coiled watchfulness and smirking sense of play. As Andrew, Brandon Sklenar has the necessary physical presence to sell the character’s in-your-face masculinity, but otherwise his initial blandness comes across almost as a parody yet suits the contours of his character.
Final Thoughts
‘The Housemaid’ may feel at times like one of those lightly erotic true-crime dramas that are the stock-in-trade of Netflix (and there is a smattering of sultry scenes here), but Paul Feig and his leading ladies give it a cinematic gloss and a sense of satire that may often elude that oversaturated genre.
Playful and fun at some points, unnervingly dark at others, ‘The Housemaid’ might end up being what some grownups want for date night at the movies this holiday season instead of talking Disney animals or the blue cat people of Pandora (not that there’s anything wrong with those, of course). At a time when pulpy, provocative, adult-oriented movies are harder to find, ‘The Housemaid’ may be just the help you’re looking for.
‘The Housemaid’ receives a score of 80 out of 100.
What is the plot of ‘The Housemaid’?
When Millie Calloway takes a job as live-in housemaid to the wealthy yet moody Nina Winchester and her attractive, charming husband Andrew, it’s only a matter of time before dark secrets, bizarre occurrences, and hidden passions erupt in the Winchesters’ seemingly perfect lives.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Housemaid’?
- Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway
- Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester
- Brandon Sklenar as Andrew Winchester
- Michele Morrone as Enzo
- Elizabeth Perkins as Evelyn Winchester
- Indiana Elle as Cecilia Winchester
- Megan Ferguson as Jilianne
- Ellen Tamaki as Patrice
Sydney Sweeney Movies and TV Shows:
- ‘ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction‘ (2010)
- ‘The Ward‘ (2011)
- ‘Angels in Stardust‘ (2014)
- ‘The Martial Arts Kid‘ (2015)
- ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ (2017 – 2022)
- ‘Along Came the Devil‘ (2018)
- ‘Everything Sucks!‘ (2018)
- ‘Sharp Objects‘ (2018)
- ‘Under the Silver Lake‘ (2019)
- ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood‘ (2019)
- ‘Euphoria‘ (2019 – 2022)
- ‘Big Time Adolescence‘ (2020)
- ‘Clementine‘ (2020)
- ‘Nocturne‘ (2020)
- ‘The Voyeurs‘ (2021)
- ‘Night Teeth‘ (2021)
- ‘The White Lotus‘ (2021 – 2022)
- ‘Reality‘ (2023)
- ‘Americana‘ (2023)
- ‘Anyone But You‘ (2023)
- ‘Madame Web‘ (2024)
- ‘Immaculate‘ (2024)
- ‘Echo Valley’ (2025)
- ‘Americana’ (2025)
- ‘Eden’ (2025)
- ‘Christy’ (2025)
- ‘The Housemaid’ (2025)
