Movie: The Housemaid

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Out of the Frying Pan
Into the Fire

Plot Overview

Homeless & vagrant, Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) on a lark answers an ad for a live-in house­maid in a high end neighbor­hood. She hits it off with the lady of the house Mrs. Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) and is surprisingly retained. A tour of the made-to-specs manse shows the main man Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar) to have been punctilious in its design. It's a glorified prison surrounded by a pike fence w/locked gate, the interior laid out in separate tiers viewable from one another, the spiral stair­case a windy twist to inhibit facile egress, and the maid's quarters a tiny sound­proofed room behind a heavy, locked door & barred window. Let's take a clue from writer Kurt Vonnegut:

The room was thirty feet square, furnished with several rugged benches and a card table. The card table supported an electric fan. The walls were stone. There were no pictures, no decorations of any sort on the walls.

There were iron rings fixed to the wall, how­ever, seven feet off the floor and at inter­vals of six feet. I asked Frank if the room had ever been a torture chamber.

He told me that it had, and that the manhole cover on which I stood was the lid of an oubliette. (118–9)

Millie having just been let out of Bedford on parole (“I didn't mean to kill him”) fits right in having a rapport with Nina who her­self had recently been insti­tutional­ized. She is beholden to her man who rescued her a “cute, helpless secretary” having gotten knocked up and being out of options. The two women in their invisible prisons have an instant rapport with each other.

The governor of this “prison” would be Andrew's condes­cending mother Evelyn (Elizabeth Perkins) who'd want grand­children of her own, which the current wife is unac­count­ably not producing, but now there's a fresh fertile female in the house. The warden would, of course, be Andrew, who puts on a humane front to quell any gossip, but some leaks out anyway. The prison inspector would be grounds­keeper Enzo (Michele Morrone) who can't help but observe the goings on.

Ideology

Andrew contrives to take Millie out on the town on her day off. Things are looking better and better for her as she supplants Nina as his main squeeze. Then she accidentally drops a plate for being spooked by Enzo at the door. She tells Andrew about it. The Good Book says, (Prov. 30:10) “Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.” It was a precious heirloom. There will be a reckoning (“Actions have consequences.”)

Production Values

“” (2025) was directed by Paul Feig. The screenplay was written by Rebecca Sonnen­shine as an adaptation of Freida McFadden's 2022 novel. It stars Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar. Seyfried had the strongest part. Casting kudos for Seyfried, Sweeny, and Sklenar.

MPA rated it R for strong/bloody violent content, sexual assault, sexual content, nudity and language. The movie turns dark at one point, darker further on, and blackest at the end. It's definitely a down­ward trend not ameliorated by the flash­backs. Runtime is 2 hours 11 minutes.

Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation

This one is not for the faint of heart. It has an inauspicious start but turns Hitch­cockian. It's not for nothing it got the R rating.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Edge of your seat action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.

Works Cited

Bible quotation is from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat's Cradle, copyright © 1963 by Kurt Vonnegut. Appearing in Three Complete Novels. New York: Wings Books, 1995. Print.