‘The Housemaid’ Review: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried star in absurd thriller

Deception could be its personal artwork type on the massive display, if accomplished proper. In any other case it may be fairly a job. The latter was what it felt like to observe “The Housemaid.”

The connection between Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) and Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) was utterly primarily based on deceit. The movie opens with Millie sitting down for an interview with Nina because the household’s live-in maid. Millie presents herself as an overqualified job candidate, however in actuality she resides out of her automotive and struggling to seek out work as a result of she is on parole from a jail sentence she was serving. She does not even want the glasses she wore to the job interview and he or she made up every thing on her resume. That is why she was shocked to get the job.

In the meantime, Nina presents herself as a bubbly, well-groomed mom who retains her luxurious residence tidy. However when Millie exhibits up for her first day at work, the home is a whole mess and Nina is totally absent-minded.

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Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester and Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in ‘The Housemaid’. (Courtesy of Lionsgate)

Millie has numerous duties, akin to cleansing, cooking and selecting up Nina’s snobbish daughter Cici (Indiana Elle) from ballet class. Fairly regular stuff, proper? However what isn’t precisely regular is Millie’s dwelling scenario. Nina places her in maybe the sketchiest visitor room; a small attic with a small window that does not open and a door that locks from the skin. Millie instantly asks for a key and a brand new window and Nina admits that the optics are unhealthy, jokingly saying, “What sort of monsters are we?”

Nina’s hiring resolution comes as a shock to Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), her dreamy husband who rapidly creeps into Millie’s fantasies.

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Brandon Sklenar as Andrew Winchester and Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester in ‘The Housemaid’. (Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate)

It does not take lengthy for Millie to understand that Nina is an actual lunatic, going loopy when she accuses her new maid of dropping her much-needed PTA notes for a gathering she’s attending. Andrew manages to calm her down, however Nina harbors a contemptuous grudge in opposition to Millie that solely grows. Nonetheless, Andrew exhibits her kindness.

What unfolds is like peeling an onion with plot twist after plot twist. And a story-dominated second act meant to show every thing the wrong way up appears extra like a artistic cop-out. As an alternative of naturally feeling rising anxiousness, I discovered myself chuckling on the rising absurdity.

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Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway and Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester in ‘The Housemaid’. (Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate)

Sweeney and Sklenar have one predominant objective: to be attractive on display. That they accomplish. Their performances do not provide a lot else, though they’re most gratifying within the third act. Seyfried goes all in because the apparently loopy Nina.

Paul Feig, greatest identified for steering comedies like “Bridesmaids,” has been getting a thriller itch since 2018’s “A Easy Favor,” no matter that is attempting to be. “A Easy Favor,” nevertheless, is a lot better, with a sophisticated plot and well-deserved laughs. “The Housemaid,” an adaptation of Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel, comes throughout as a campy Lifetime cleaning soap opera that will get laughs for all of the flawed causes.

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Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in ‘The Housemaid’.

The decision:

There could also be a demographic that may eat it up, however “The Housemaid” is a large number of a film that Sweeney and Seyfried cannot clear up regardless of their greatest efforts. On a scale between setting the desk and scrubbing a dirty rest room, that is nearer to taking out the trash.

★½ — SKIP

“The Housemaid” is rated R for sturdy/gory violent content material, sexual assault, sexual content material, nudity and language. Operating time: 2 hours and 11 minutes. Now in cinemas.

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