The Housemaid is not a remake of the classic 1960 South Korean film by that name, which has been remade a bunch of times in a bunch of different countries. Rather, it’s based on Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel, which has since been followed by three sequels and enough stand-alone books to make Stephen King look as blocked as latter-day J.D. Salinger. This comes at a price, as McFadden’s volume feels like the product of someone cranking out fiction on an industrial scale, but if I’ve learned anything, it’s that trashy novels can be made into terrific movies.
Paul Feig has taken charge of the film adaptation, and he’s made it into a throwback to disreputable psychological thrillers of bygone decades like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct. The back half of this film is a bit balky, but nevertheless following the book’s lead and telling this story from the woman’s point of view does all sorts of good things for The Housemaid.
The story begins with Wilhelmina “Millie” Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) applying for a job as a live-in maid to wealthy housewife Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried). They’re both hiding something: In Millie’s case, she neglects to reveal that she’s an ex-convict coming off 10 years in prison who’s living out of her car. However, it’s Nina who starts behaving like a psycho shortly after Millie moves in, screaming at her, bursting into tears, throwing things, and lobbing wild accusations at her. Nina gives the same treatment to her tech-mogul husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), who repeatedly swoops in and saves Millie from his wife’s tantrums. Between that and an Italian groundskeeper (Michele Morrone) who keeps staring Millie down from outside the house, Nina’s Long Island mansion starts to feel more dangerous than prison.
If you’ve read the book, you know about the Gone Girl-style plot twist in the middle of the story. What you should know is that the violence is raised considerably here, as the torture that Millie undergoes in her attic room (which locks from the outside) leaves numerous marks on her. Then, too, the climactic struggle is much bloodier, and I wouldn’t mind it if it wasn’t for Millie conveniently going missing until just the right moment.
If the acting were up to snuff, this might have been great. Of the zillion or so movies that Sweeney has headlined this year, this is easily the best one, yet she feels washed out in this role. You’ll still have to see her in Euphoria to really understand what she’s all about. As for the Chris Evans lookalike Sklenar, his role is boring by design, and I still think he succeeds a bit too well at being dull. He does deliver a good moment when he explodes with rage, as Andrew’s patience with his wife finally runs out and he kicks her out of the house. Even so, a more personable actor would have served this part better.
The one who brings a simmering rage to her part is Seyfried as a housewife whose erratic behavior has turned the other wealthy mothers in the neighborhood against her. Her performance is cagier than it first appears, too, for reasons in that aforementioned plot twist that I can’t discuss here, but even in the opening when Nina first welcomes Millie and wants to make a good impression, Seyfried seems just the right degree of off, slightly manic, desperate to please. The film excises Nina gaining about 50 pounds since marrying Andrew (likely because if Seyfried gained that much weight, she’d have trouble moving around), and this turns out to be a good thing because it emphasizes the similar coloring and build of the two lead actresses, as if Andrew has an identifiable type.
Some people might miss the camp excesses of Feig’s Simple Favor movies, but it seems right that the director turns this into something else. Though some snappier writing by Rebecca Sonnenshine could have helped, The Housemaid is an improvement on the book and about as good an adaptation as we could have expected. That makes for a neat Christmas present at the multiplex.
The Housemaid
Starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. Directed by Paul Feig. Written by Rebecca Sonnenshine, based on Freida McFadden’s novel. Rated R.
