The Housemaid

The Housemaid is an amazing time at the theaters for all the wrong reasons, a pitch-perfect example of cinematic slop that is just begging to be devoured by its core demographic. It is a colossally mismatched film that does not have a single aspect that works well in conjunction together. Somehow, it makes you doubt the talent of proven stars like Amanda Seyfried and talented directors like Paul Feig with how absurdly silly it reveals itself to be. I was absolutely hooked.

The opening hour of this movie was dying for that one-star treatment on Letterboxd. The Housemaid had it all: awful line readings, editing that felt like we were chopping out full scenes just to trim this thing down to a two-hour thriller, and writing that made it impossible to care about any of our core trio. Then the twist happens, and I have to admit, I fell for it. I was actually digging what the film was turning into. I started to get on the same wavelength as these performances, surprisingly receptive to the vibe The Housemaid  was going for. For the most part, this change in tone, style, and attitude pretty much fixed the movie for me. I dug how campy it became, I liked that the performances were no longer overtly annoying, and I appreciated the high stakes.

But then the final scene happened, and I found myself right back at square one. I was enjoying what I was watching, but not for the intended reasons. The final two minutes that lead into the credit scroll and their chosen needle drop are laughably awful, a complete miss in every sense of the word. The rows around me laughed, and perhaps that was the intention, but it felt a lot more like a shockingly dark turn for sequel bait. 

This movie knows who its audience is—book club attendees and wine moms—and it is bound to satisfy those folks. But for me, this is the perfect example of something you put on for your friends and laugh at together. 

This especially extends to Amanda Seyfried’s performance. What can you even say? Some people think she deserves to win Best Actress for her performance in The Testament of Ann Lee. I’d say for the majority of this movie she deserves Supporting Actress… at the Razzies. What she’s bringing to the screen in that first hour is some of the worst I’ve seen all year: overacting to a T, not in a humorous Sean-Penn in One Battle After Another kind of way, but more in a “I think I’m killing it, but I’m really not” style akin to Sean Penn in Flag Day. However, once the twist occurs, this character really works for me. If I ever do join in a rewatch for comedic purposes, I am excited to see how the first half of her performance plays out knowing where it will go.

And while Sydney Sweeney may have great jeans, she does not have any presence whatsoever here. She brings nothing to the role. I feel like someone like Madelyn Cline would have eaten this role up, she has the look and the energy, she can pull off comedy pretty well. Sweeney is serviceable, sure, but she is just not memorable. Rounding out the trio we have Brandon Sklenar, who was pretty charming, but started to lose me the deeper we got into the runtime.

I don’t know what happened to Paul Feig, man. This guy made classics like Bridesmaids, hilarious comedies like Spy, underrated gems like Last Christmas, and fun thrillers like A Simple Favor. But between Another Simple Favor, Jackpot, and The Housemaid, that consistently entertaining director is nowhere to be found. 

4/10