Shadows on the Wall | The Housemaid

The Housemaid

dir Paul Feig
scr Rebecca Sonnenshine
prd Todd Lieberman, Paul Feig, Laura Fischer
with Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins, Indiana Elle, Amanda Joy Erickson, Sarah Cooper, Megan Ferguson, Ellen Tamaki, Alexandra Seal, Alaina Surgener
release US 19.Dec.25,
UK 26.Dec.25
25/US Lionsgate 2h11

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Twisty and insinuating, this sparky thriller continually finds ways to unnerve the audience. Director Paul Feig adds camp touches at every point, gleefully gaslighting the title character, who has a sketchy background right out of a Hitchcock movie. This a silly, super-slick film that takes several severe turns along the way, giving the audience whiplash as we try to keep up with these people and their dark secrets.

Moving back to New York after being released from prison, Millie (Sweeney) is living in her car when she applies for a live-in housekeeping job in a flashy mansion. Soon she's moving in with housewife Nina (Seyfried), her hunky architect husband Andrew (Sklenar) and their blunt 7-year-old daughter Cece (Elle). It quickly becomes clear that Nina has mental health issues, with mad accusations and mistruths. And darkly brooding groundskeeper Enzo (Moorone) seems to know something about this family. As she realises that Nina might be dangerously nuts, Millie becomes desperate to get out of here.

Continually swerving from nice to nasty, Nina seems to materialise out of thin air around Millie accusing her of absurd things, while Andrew is ridiculously muscly and friendly. Along with Millie's secret past, Nina also has a shady history that Millie overhears in fragments. Millie also can't help but get a bit too close to Andrew. Where this goes feels implausible and overlong, relying on voiceover narration to explain back-stories. But it's enjoyably vicious.

As things get increasingly crazy, the actors maintain an earthy realism. Sweeney finds superb nuance in Millie's conflicted emotions, hiding her truth while struggling with Nina's unpredictability. But she's not as helpless as she seems. Even as Nina goes over the top, Seyfried avoids tipping into caricature, giving Nina some grit and tenacity. Sklenar plays up Andrew's charming ability to talk his way out of anything. But what is he hiding? And Perkins adds an icy kick as Andrew's imperious mother.

Because everything that is happening around her feels so wrong, Millie's moral dilemmas become thoroughly involving. And since the film puts us so tightly within her perspective, each twist seems to come out of nowhere. The way things shift from happy to terrifying continually throws her (and us) off balance. So a perspective-switching spin gives the film a terrific kick. And the moral here is that perhaps we should make alternate plans if a new job or relationship seems too good to be true.

themes, language, violence, sexuality 6.Dec.25

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