Paul Feig’s screen version of Freida McFadden’s bestselling thriller The Housemaid requires abstinence. Viewers who can resist a book-versus-movie comparison are in for a suitably pulpy catfight that tilts towards darkness.
Out on parole and desperately in need of money, Millie (Sydney Sweeney) accepts a position as a live-in maid with the affluent Winchester family. The house is perfect, and for a while, even Millie’s employer Nina (Amanda Seyfriend) seems so. But as Millie discovers during the course of swabbing and cooking, Nina is highly prone to a condition that not too long ago used to be politely called mood swings.
Millie is given an airless room in the attic. Nina’s daughter Cecelia (Indiana Elle) is rude and sulky. The gardener behaves strangely (Michele Morrone). Nina’s hunky husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) appears to be the only normal person around.
While it’s not hard to see where The Housemaid is heading, the film is an entertaining tale of deception and payback. Like the source material, Rebecca Sonnenshine’s screenplays has hers and hers sections, each showing events from the perspectives of Millie and Nina.
Largely faithful to Freida McFadden’s breathless plotting, the film relies heavily on suspending disbelief – some of the twists are too convenient – and going along with the conceit that the characters can keep up secrets for as long as they do.
Sydney Sweeney is the bigger draw in the cast, with the film losing no opportunity to underline her sex appeal. But it’s Amanda Seyfried who is more engaging and emotionally involving. The film doesn’t initially do justice to Seyfried’s compelling performance, the sudden shifts in facial expression, the bird-like movements.
The rapid-fire editing eventually settles down to a study of two women locked into a situation that each of them tries to control. This is one game that Seyfried wins at all times.
