A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Housemaid” (2025, 4*, 15).
Hats off to my film reviewing colleague the Reverend Andy Godfrey for pointing out that “The Housemaid” is indeed a throwback to those sort of psychological thrillers that they used to make in abundance in the late 80’s and early 90’s. “Single White Female”, “Fatal Attraction”, “Basic Instinct”, “Pacific Heights”, “Sleeping with the Enemy”: they all their queasily familiar fingerprints over this new film from Paul Feig. But that’s certainly not a problem in my book: I love these type of guessing-game movies and it’s a genre that’s been somewhat overlooked in recent years.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) is down on her luck, sleeping in her car and desperately in need of a regular job. Fortuitously, and against her expectations, she is hired into the role of a live-in maid for the wealthy Winchester family. But the perfect family in their perfect house have some dark secrets.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong violence, injury detail, sex, sexual violence, very strong language.”)
Talent:
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Indiana Elle, Elizabeth Perkins.
Directed by: Paul Feig.
Written by: Rebecca Sonnenshine. (Based on the book by Freida McFadden).
Running Time: 2h 11m.
Summary:
Positives:
- Although a tad predictable, you never QUITE know where this story will go next.
- A few very tense scenes: edge of your seat stuff.
- Great powerhouse acting performances from Sweeney and Seyfried.
- Good chemistry between Sweeney and Sklenar.
Negatives:
- There are a lot of voiceover flashbacks that I’m never a great fan of.
- The first half of the film could have done with a bit of tightening up.
Full Review of “The Housemaid”:
The trailer keeps things nicely vague.
I really don’t want to say too much in this review about the plot as this is a film best served cold and it is not officially released until Boxing Day in the UK. In previous films of this ilk, the evil protagonist is sometimes the person coming into the household (such as in “Pacific Heights” and “Single White Female”) and in others it is the lodger that is terrorised by a deranged resident (such as in Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” or indeed in that classic Hitchcock “Psycho”). Here, the trailer keeps its cards pretty close to its chest so I won’t spoil where it goes.
Takes a while to come to the boil.
At 131 minutes, it’s no “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (thank heavens), but the story still takes quite a while to get into the meat of it, with a lengthy set up that perhaps could have been tightened up a bit. You need to suspend your disbelief at times as well. As the story unfolds, we go on a theatre trip to New York and I was thinking “well, this is pretty improbable and ridiculous”. And it is. But stick with it, since there is method in the apparent madness.
The story develops pretty nicely and – although I had already worked out where it was likely to go – there were enough bumps and turns on the track to keep me thoroughly entertained. One tense scene in particular had me wanting to shout at a character “NO, DON’T DO IT”!
Sydney Sweeney cements her position as a major film star.
Looking at her IMDB profile, Sydney Sweeney has has a long and tortuous rise to fame through a great many bit-part roles in TV shows and a few films (such as “Once Upon A Time… in Hollywood” where she hitchhiked as Snake alongside another up-and-coming Margaret Qualley). It has been TV that has really launched her, through the memorable first series of “The White Lotus” and the raunchy Zendaya-led “Euphoria”.
In terms of feature films, she’s actually limited her output to just a few films a year, with only the Shakespeare-based rom-com “Anyone But You” and the truly terrible “Madame Web” hitting my lists so far. But she feels like someone on an ever-upward trajectory as she slips into a category of ‘star’ with not only stunning looks but also real acting talent. From this film you can quite see how, if Hitchcock was still alive and making films, he would have adopted her as one of his female muses. It’s a terrific performance.
From the outset of Millie meeting the dashing Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar) (and a subsequent – neatly done – mental tumble in the attic room), you feel the sexual tension between the characters. This is helped along by some real chemistry between the actors.
Elsewhere.
Amanda Seyfried is also having a strong year with this role as well as the upcoming “The Testament of Ann Lee” where she gave an equally dramatic performance. She does manic very well indeed.
I was going to comment that I really don’t know Brandon Skylenar’s work (his agent should really suggest a name change), but (of course) he played the other side of the date table from Meghann Fahy in one of this year’s other psychological thrillers, “Drop“. He takes the credit here for having one of the two top gory moments in the film (the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man had her hands over her face on both occasions!)
As for the actor playing the mother-in-law – one of the most unlikeable characters in the film – I was wracking my brains as to where I knew her from. OF COURSE, it’s Elizabeth Perkins, who featured in Paul Feig’s last (and infinitely worse) film “Another Simple Favor” but who is still recognisable, 37 years later, as Tom Hank’s highly inappropriate love interest from the film “Big”!
Voiceovers.
Followers of this blog will know that voiceovers in films tend to be one of my pet hates. This film, in following a couple of flashback narratives, features then extensively. But in terms of actually telling a story of what was going on in the background, they were an acceptable approach and didn’t irritate me too much.
Fun epilogue.
I particularly enjoyed a fun epilogue scene in the movie which left me smiling broadly and probably is the reason this edged from a 3.5 stars to a 4 stars.
Triggers.
The film does cover aspects of mental health and there is also a depiction of a rape in the movie which may be disturbing to some viewers.
Summary Thoughts:
A fun and engaging psychological thriller with a couple of powerful female acting turns from Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. My preview cinema screen was pretty much fully booked for this one, featuring a younger audience than I normally see in my Everyman cinema, so I predict that this one will have a broad demographic appeal and be a big hit.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The Christmas teaser trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqWH0KDqm3U. A very nicely crafted spoiler-free effort from the marketing team. Bravo!
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