‘The Housemaid’ REVIEW: Another girlboss thriller
‘The Housemaid’ REVIEW: Another girlboss thriller
Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid / Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
WARNING! The review may contain some spoilers for ‘The Housemaid.’
In a sea of forgettable thrillers dumped on streaming platforms, some handful of films survive the streaming curse and are still being released in theaters with the same quality as these made-for-streaming films. For the case of The Housemaid, while scenes from this film are something you would see posted over and over again on Facebook reels or TikTok, and the film’s Gone Girl-esque approach was done way too many times now, there’s a charm to this film that makes it worthy to sit through.
Based on Freida McFadden’s 2022 book of the same name, the film revolves around Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweney), a young woman out on parole hired by Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) as their live-in maid. Insanity ensues, and as Millie spends more time in the house, the family’s dark secret unfolds before her eyes, which rocks her world even more.
The plot is an intriguing one, yet the problem lies in the writing and execution itself. It is not helping that Sydney Sweeney’s performance made Millie, the protagonist and titular character of the film, an unbearable and uninteresting one. Her acting feels one-note, especially if you have seen her performances after Euphoria Season 2, and is being overshadowed by Amanda Seyfried, who continues to prove her versatility as an actress throughout the years, and is the strongest performer in the film. Seyfried ultimately was the one who gave the film its flavor and made you wish the casting director cast someone whose acting capabilities matched Seyfried's. There is one pivotal scene in the film where Millie confronts Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), Nina’s husband and while the context of the scene is a “yass girlboss” moment that keeps you in the edge of your seat and Sweeney’s performance in the scene is an okay one, it is boring compared to what Seyfried has shown so far in that movie.
Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid / Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
Although I would give some grace to the actors, the dialogue is camp-level laughable. To survive the whole screening, I keep telling myself that it was done purposefully badly. Even some of the people during my screening of the film laughed at some of the dialogue and were confused as to why some of the lines were written as such. Characterization is even more lacking, for it never made sense that Millie, a girl who protected her friend from being assaulted, would go after a married man willingly and not see through his cracks.
Perhaps this is the brand that we should all look out for when seeing a Paul Feige film, not to mention the film’s needle drops, which consist of songs from Renee Rapp, Lana Del Rey, Kelly Clarkson and Taylor Swift, which gave me a series of whiplash and a eureka moment by the end of the film as to who the film is for. The choice of songs does make sense, though, but I can’t help wondering if these choices made the director scream “slay, girl!”, brand it as feminism, and call it a day. It even reminded me of his previous film, A Simple Favor, which has the same spirit as this film and also a two-hander, if you look at it as a dark comedy mystery film and not some serious drama film.
‘The Housemaid’ is now out on Video on Demand (VOD).
