The Housemaid
Synopsis: A live-in housemaid tries to please her gaslighting, fuming employer while getting close to the woman’s husband. Based on the book by Rebecca Sonnenshine.
Good jobs are hard to find. Hard to find good housekeepers too. Sydney Sweeney is Millie, a twenty-something desperate for a job. She drives her late model compact car to see Nina (Amanda Seyfried) about a housekeeping job. Nina’s house is a tastefully appointed manse on Long Island. She ushers Millie into a luxe living room. Beautiful, nearing-40 Nina is well-dressed and has glamorous hair. She’s friendly, if a little manic. Maybe she’s just enthusiastic about getting a new housekeeper.
Discussing the job, Nina says Millie would be responsible for keeping the house clean and tidy with some cooking and childcare responsibilities too. After talking some more, Nina tells Sydney that she likes her, but with her college education and prior work experience; why does she want to be a housekeeper? Millie smiles, nodding her head and replying that she just likes the work–provided the family is a good fit. With her big vacant eyes, I wondered what she does to families who aren’t a ‘good fit.’
They tour the house and Nina tells Millie about her daughter, Cece (Indiana Elle), who is in elementary school. They reach the child’s room, decked out in a ballet theme. Nina breathlessly reports that dance is the girl’s life. But it seems like maybe mom just likes the ballet aesthetic.
Suddenly, Nina confides that she is pregnant, but “don’t tell anyone” because she’s waiting to tell her husband. Surrre…that’s normal that the first person you announce your pregnancy to is a stranger. Red flag!
Millie leaves and as she drives away, we hear her voiceover, lamenting that she probably won’t get the job. She sighs, hoping Nina won’t check her references because her resume is one big lie. Red flag! But I also get that things are tough for zoomers what with AI taking all the entry-level white-collar jobs.
Things are worse for Millie than I thought—she’s sleeping in her car. This explains her stringy hair and rumpled clothes. Officers pound on her window at the parking lot that she overnighted in: You can’t sleep here! Both cops looked really disgusted with her, like it’s their own parking lot and they were trying to set a Guiness record with consecutive days of no cars parked. Poor Millie. She apologizes and drives off to apply for more service jobs—wait! A call from Nina; she’s hired. Thrilled, Millie says she can start right away. Understandable, who wants to sleep in a car? Unless it’s abandoned and you are a racoon.
Millie moves in with little more than a backpack. Nina is excited to show her to her room, up about four flights of stairs, in the attic. Red flag? Well, at least it’s not a basement. At this point, I’d be asking in a scared whisper: ww-what happened to the last housemaid? But Millie needs this job, and she can sleep in a bed instead of curled up in the back seat of her car.
Back down the many stairs to the main floor and the husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) is arriving home with Cece. Hesitant, he asks who the guest is. Hahaha! laughs Nina, This is our new housemaid! And she’s going to be living with us! Cece, her hair pulled back in a tight bun, folds her arms and glares at Millie.
I should tell you that the husband is very hot, tall, handsome and, I suspected, gym-fit. I feel that Nina might be a little crazy, hiring a gorgeous young woman to tend to the household. Hasn’t she ever read celeb gossip about the young nannies hired by rich actresses or singers to care for the kids while they are working? About how their aging rock star or aging sports star husbands end up (allegedly) hooking up with the recent high school grad child carers? But Nina is too busy writing her speech to the PTA to pay attention.
Millie does her best to do a good job and ingratiate herself with her new employer. But within 24 hours, Nina goes bonkers. She’s cursing, smashing stuff around in the kitchen and flinging open drawers like a teen who can’t find their vape pen. Red flag!
The Jekyll and Hyde behavior continues, with Nina threatening to fire her, then relenting. Meanwhile, the hot dad arrives home at the end of each workday looking perplexed by his wife’s behavior. When he’s alone with Sydney, he confesses that he doesn’t know what to do. He runs his hands through his hair, flexing his biceps. Millie knows what he should do. In a voiceover, she admits that it’s been a long time since she’s had sex. Later, she fixes him with a hungry stare when he has to take his shirt off for some contrived reason. Bruh! This is the third time this week that I’ve spilled taco sauce on my shirt!
Nina was too busy monitoring Millie’s housework to notice the gathering lust in the air. Meanwhile, Millie is tripping over herself trying to make friends with Cece who repeatedly scoffs at her. But I knew something was bound to happen when the camera gave us a tour of Cece’s dollhouse that Andrew built for her. There is a mommy and a daddy and a girl at the kitchen table. And upstairs in the attic is a Millie-esque doll with a large bosom and long, never-brushed hair.
Did I mention the secret forays that Millie makes into the city? Or the gardener Enzo (Michele Morrone) who is always pausing from his work to stare into the house at Millie? Maybe he is just wondering how to communicate with the new housekeeper. One afternoon, Millie tentatively approaches him in the yard. She asks what he knows about the family. But apparently, he’s been sequestering himself in a shed for the years he’s been working for the family, because he speaks not a word of English. He just mutters something to Millie in Italian before lurching away. (I wish I knew what he said, but I only know a few Italian swears and lots of Italian food words.)
In the last half of the movie all sorts of psychologically suspenseful things happen. No one is getting less crazy. In fact, you’ll start to wonder who, if anyone, is telling the truth.
I am pretty gullible when it comes to gossip, and I believed every rumor that that nanny Amanda told Millie at Cece’s ballet class. And I wondered if the actress (Alaina Surgener) in that small part could tell me if Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney got along or headed in opposite directions during film breaks?
Some things you’ll just to have keep wondering about, but you will find out the fate of the housemaid, the family and the heirloom china that Nina’s snobby mother-in-law Evelyn (Elizabeth Perkins) brings over. Yes, even innocent tableware is in danger in this thriller.
Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:
Grade: C+
Cut to the Chase: The Housemaid has the same kind of glossy appeal of Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick’s A Simple Favor. Along with the cheap thrills of a Lifetime movie of the woman-in-danger-who-turns-into-a-badass variety.
Humor Highlight: The husband and the housemaid trying to resist each other.