Directed By Paul Feig
Starring – Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar
The Plot – Based on the best-selling book, the film plunges audiences into a twisted world where perfection is an illusion, and nothing is as it seems. Trying to escape her past, Millie (Sweeney) accepts a job as a live-in housemaid for the wealthy Nina (Seyfried) and Andrew Winchester (Sklenar). But what begins as a dream job quickly unravels into something far more dangerous; a sexy, seductive game of secrets, scandal, and power. Behind the Winchesters’ closed doors lies a world of shocking twists that will leave you guessing until the very end.
Rated R for strong/bloody violent content, sexual assault, sexual content, nudity and adult language.
The Housemaid (2025) Official Trailer – Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar
POSITIVES
Feig’s comedically consistent career received a second wind after the universal success of 2018’s “A Simple Favor”, allowing him unfiltered access to delve into the world of murder mysteries, with a film that revels itself as a trashy gossip session between girlfriends, and while “The Housemaid” doesn’t quite reach the soaring success of its predecessor, Feig still caters to the very same housewives who lose themselves in Netflix’s never-ending library of true crime documentaries, eliciting a film that is fun even when frenetic. In terms of entertainment value and authenticity, this movie has it in spades, where Feig’s every detail lends itself effortlessly to the characteristics of domestic thrillers of the 80’s and 90’s, in everything from strikingly surreal chords from Theodore Shapiro’s scintillatingly over-the-top score, the script’s familiar treading of preheated conflicts, and steamy sex scenes that show off the problematic pretty people in all of their bodily allure, giving the experience the kind of rampantly exaggerated realities that breed exhilaration, even as the film clocks in at an unnecessary 126-minute runtime. If Feig’s very motive for making such a movie pertained to emulating the kind of movie that could accommodate a Cinemax or Lifetime Television showcasing, then he succeeded brilliantly, as the film feels like it exists merely to stoke the fires of lower and middle class audiences who revel in the maniacal devastation of upper class privilege, but even in gift-wrapping an unforeseen dissection of psychological gaslighting, the presents come early for the movie’s pre-Christmas release date, and I found myself respecting the material’s honorable intentions, even if it doesn’t break any new ground in eliciting such a noble observation. On top of Feig’s efforts, the film is very funny, but intentionally and unintentionally, with some of the most heavy-handed, hand-fisted dialogue that serves as a necessary stable to these kinds of movies. While this sounds like a backhanded compliment, it actually serviced my engagement quite integrally, as I found many of the initial interactions so evidentially over-the-top that I was glued on every word of the unstable interactions, conjuring an uneasiness for environment that almost immediately conveys that something darker and deeper is persisting in this beautifully luxurious home, featuring some solid uses of John Schwartzman’s sleekly spanning cinematography, to articulate Millie’s an inescapable surveillance in the house’s many wandering eyes. In many ways, it’s easy to overlook what Schwartzman and the camera are orchestrating here, as the production doesn’t lend itself to technical components that stand out and deviate away from the attention of the storytelling, but these abrupt shifts of the lens away from Millie obscure and then reveal Nina’s nagging persistence on her, without the emphasized jolt of jump scares to subdue their artistic integrity, and produces some stimulating subconscious psychology to the characters at their most vulnerable, which preheats tension, even if it undercooks frights. Lastly, I want to give some attention to the performances, as all three actors (Yes, even Sweeney) are solidly commanding here, with Seyfried obviously taking the biggest pieces of the attention pie with an intensely unbridled turn exacts her character’s withering sanity. Seyfried has made a career off of articulating some very bold personalities, but her turn here as Nina, physically and emotionally, inspires a scenery-chewing imposition on her prey, despite being the smallest framed actor among the fray, with Seyfried taking the character down some dark and bi-polarizing corridors that simultaneously bring out the insecurity and helplessness of her routine, submitting a turn that truly brings to light the much-speculated versatility of the actress, especially during that initial ice-breaking opening act.
NEGATIVES
While “The Housemaid” can occasionally be a rampant source for outpouring entertainment, it certainly isn’t without its creative flaws, particularly with a floundering script that definitely could’ve used a lot of smoothing out before being greenlit, specifically during its biggest moments. Considering this is a movie that lives and dies on the effectiveness of its twists, they are every bit predictable as they are flatly registering to the movie’s integrity, mostly as a result of telegraphing the honesty of their realities with everything from transparent set decoration and body language of the characters, and while twists aren’t everything for my own personal expectations on a film, they are the catalyst towards shifting many of the power dynamics that exist under this hostile household, and as a result leave a lack of a lasting impression during the film’s most memorable moments. On top of this, the script also falls into illogical waters, on account of conveniences, contrivances, and glaring plot holes the size of Lake Michigan, taking far too much focus away the storytelling in the sloppiest of methods. It’s the kind of movie that is smart enough to outline every spare detail about the plotting of its conflict, yet isn’t logical enough to approach something as universally obvious as DNA, or overcoming situational adversity, and it requires far too much suspension of disbelief on those who watch enough police procedurals to comprehend how this would all realistically play out, utilizing convenience in the most meanderingly irresponsible ways that dejected some noticeable momentum from the movie’s favor. While on the subject of evaporating momentum, the film is also conflicted by its own two hour runtime, ideally with a long-winded exposition dump at the beginning of the third act that flounders on a bit too long by bombshell-dropping standards, in need of a strategic edit to measure its meaning without sacrificing the fluidity of its storytelling. While explanation is undeniably needed with the duality of some of its characters, there are easier ways to condense it that doesn’t require the advancement of the storytelling to pause directly in its tracks for around twenty minutes of the runtime, and between this and some other moments between Millie and some manipulative supporting characters feeling too repetitious to the movie’s consistency, the engagement isn’t able to evade the feeling of the film feeling every inch of its runtime, leaving some pacing peril during the movie’s second act that could’ve lost around twenty minutes of material without actually losing anything meaningful to its material. Last but not least, even Feig’s direction stands in the way of this film reaching its potential, with his tonal elasticity feeling overextended by contradicting actions that threaten the movie’s aforementioned fun factor, specifically during an opening first half that plays matters a bit too sternly in its sensibilities to feel necessarily campy or pulpy. Part of the problem for this pratfall are the some of the song choices of the soundtrack that compromise some of its steamiest sessions with lyrics that don’t line up seamlessly to what’s transpiring visually, but Feig’s dwindling grasp over the material makes it feel like he lacks a cohesive clarity with how to present it, and as to where a palpable edginess works with something like “A Simple Favor”, with so much more of the comedic writing working synthetically with its darker developments, here the third act shift to deviance has it feeling like a completely different film all together than the one that was prominent throughout the first hour and a half of the movie, enacting an interpretive outlining to scenes that are difficult to coherently gauge just what Paul was seeking emotionally out of his audience.
OVERALL
“The Housemaid” might serve as a dark and twistedly trashy throwback to mystery thrillers of yesterday, specifically with its virtual checklist of tropes sizzling sexuality and sleaziness to audience expectations, but it’s ultimately an overlong and illogical waltz into unhinged mania that lacks any semblance of reality to its telegraphed twists and problematic plotting. While Feig has no problems conjuring fun in a film that unleashes the unbridled madness of its energetic ensemble, it’s ultimately the inconsistency of his direction that doesn’t clean up, leaving this Christmas season stocking stuffer overstuffed by a story with insatiable indulgence.
My Grade: 5.9 or D+