Sydney Sweeney plays Millie, a girl with a troubled past who gets a job as a live-in housemate for a wealthy family, and then things get weird and dark…
Sydney Sweeney is very good as Millie; she feels very down-to-earth and relatable, but there is some interesting mystery and twist with her character.
I think the biggest reason to see this is for Amanda Seyfried’s performance (who plays the rich wife, Nina), because she is able to switch from, like, very over-the-top and silly to very intimidating and unhinged in, like, a second. It’s really impressive and very entertaining to watch.
Brandon Sklenar plays the husband, Andrew, who at first seems a little too charming and perfect, but he and Millie have some cute and sweet scenes that really warm you to his character.
The movie does a fun job at building tension and unfolding the mystery while also infusing it with a good amount of dark humor, which is not an easy thing to do, but they do a really impressive job; it feels like Alfred Hitchcock meets Mean Girls.
Paul Feig does a solid job directing and comes up with some pretty cool camera shots, not to mention, for an over two-hour movie, it has a pretty good pacing, like the movie will fly by.
There is a gaggle of rich housewife characters that are a little over the top at points, but they get some good laughs in.
There is a groundskeeper character played by Michele Morrone, who gives a good performance, but I wish they had explored his character more; there just seemed to be more going on with him than they only really scratched the surface of.
There are a couple points in the film where my suspension of disbelief gets stretched a little too much; there are definitely a couple points where I’m like, “Millie, why are you still there? There are more warning signs than a railroad crossing lol.
I quite enjoyed this cinematography; everything looked very idyllic and soft, which fit the fancy house, and it was used very effectively in an almost subversive way towards the end of the film.
So going into this movie, I heard this had a crazy twist, and we’re a good chunk into the film, and I’m sitting there thinking, “OK, this movie is enjoyable, but what is this twist they’re talking about?” Like, I’m trying to predict what it might be, and I have a couple guesses here and there, and for a second I thought, “OK, maybe it’s not going to be that big a twist,” and just when I thought that, that’s when the twist kicked in, and I have to say… I did not see that coming lol.
I will say, I did find the final climax to be a little predictable, not in, like, a bad way, but the rest of the movie had been more intriguing and surprising, and I was hoping the film would end on a bigger plateau, but where it ends up didn’t feel quite as strong and more run-of-the-mill, but still solid.
Also, as well done as that first big twist was, it’s one of those twists that the more you think about, the more certain things feel contrived in certain areas. But honestly, it doesn’t take away from the movie too much, and the movies are entertaining enough that you’re not really distracted by it.
Also, there was one final twist that I thought was OK—that’s way too convenient. Like, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than having that workout. Like it’s not enough to ruin the movie, but man, those odds are thinner than the side of a piece of paper lol.
I also got to see with my sister who explained the differences between the movie and the book afterwards, so that was nice
Overall, The Housemaid takes a premise that has been explored in many films and adds an interesting new dimension to it, combining both humor and thrills to a point that they’re almost interchangeable, with great performances and direction throughout, and a twist/climax that definitely cranks things up to 11 that most audiences will really be entertained by. I give the film four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Sometimes the movie doesn’t have to be the smartest; it just has to be fun, and this certainly was.
