Review of the movie “The Housemaid”; Adapted from Frieda McFadden’s novel Yellow

Fans of Frieda McFadden probably consider the novel “The Maid” to be a clever work that knows how to surprise its audience; This film, however, in its best case, is a humble work with feminist gestures, which ironically is more interested in pleasing the male audience. You can read the review of the movie “The Housemaid” in this article.

Warning! There is a risk of revealing the story in the review of the movie “Servant”.

After the disaster he created with Ghostbusters (2016), feminist-favorite filmmaker Paul Feig veered toward thrillers and horror, testing his ideologies in a different structure. “A Simple Favor” (2018) combined two discordant genres by combining female comedy and criminal elements, and the final result was relatively acceptable. “The Servant” is almost a repetition of the same formulas as the answer, except that it does not want to be a comedy. The film does not neglect to refer to yellow romance novels and melodrama clichés to ensure its popularity.

Adventures begin with Millie (Sydney Sweeney). A young woman who was imprisoned for 10 years for committing murder and was rejected by everyone – even her family – and now needs a job and shelter to benefit from the minimum parole. This sensitive situation leads him to lie and cover up because he has no choice but to be hired by Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried). Although this job position (servant in the Winchesters’ house) seems too dreamlike (too good to be true, as the French say) and Millie doesn’t have much hope for it, she is unexpectedly accepted to start a special, ambiguous and potentially dangerous relationship with Nina.

The first day everything is calm and ideal, but from the second day, the walls come down and Nina shows signs of severe bipolar disorder; A disorder that makes both the atmosphere of the house tense and the desire to be thrown into the focus of emotional and psychological violence. Irrational demands, sudden changes in mood, emotional blackmail (gsalite) and small and big humiliations become Nina’s means of consolidating her power, and Milly has to tolerate it because of her personal life conditions. Even Cecilia, Nina’s daughter, apparently has a personal enmity with Millie; A type of resentment that is a reflection of the poisoned atmosphere of the home and probably a direct result of the unbalanced behavior of the mother.

In the meantime, the only hole of fairness and rationality is Andrew (Brandon Skelnar); Nina’s handsome and cultured husband, who treats Milli with respect and tries to compensate for his wife’s mental violence. Of course, there is a problem, Andrew seems too good to be true (too good to be true), and since Nina’s behavior is radical, crazy and completely one-dimensional, we can guess from the beginning that Andrew’s true nature will be something else, because it is stupid that the two main characters of a modern thriller are drawn so black and white.

Based on Frida McFadden’s best-selling novel, the film is, as expected, based on plot twists. The film constantly tries to play the ace card, sometimes it succeeds but often it fails. Despite this, the twists and turns of the film are not bad, maybe not shocking, but at least they work to some extent in questioning concepts such as trust, “who is the victim” and “what is the truth”. The film persistently avoids providing easy answers and forces us to constantly reconsider our moral judgments. However, it wouldn’t be surprising if we end up with all three main characters being equally crappy.

The film does not have a bad start. It begins with a classic puzzle; A world where every character has something to hide and no action is without reason. But later on, the film suddenly tilts the steering wheel and falls into the abyss of a naive and even trivial romance. This shift in tone is so extreme—and tinged with vulgarity—that it’s no surprise if you find yourself in vicarious shame midway through the film. The erotic scenes of the film, with their sloppy editing and second-rate pop songs, bring to life the memory of works like “Fifty Shades of Grey”, but they are even weaker than that. In these parts, the film has no creativity and intentionally or unintentionally, it lowers itself to the point of vulgarity.

I can only justify the movie being so ridiculous because the movie wants to make the audience’s expectation level as low as possible. If this was the goal, Paul Feig has achieved his wish because the film then returns to the thriller genre with a harsher tone, uses a little of the characteristics of paranoid thrillers and uses a little of the elements of psychological thrillers to become a revenge film. The fact that the film grabs almost every sub-genre is meant to sound clever, but unfortunately it’s nothing more than a messy concoction. The film is not willing to clarify its task until almost the final parts, or in other words, it escapes from the narrative coherence, because the filmmaker knows that he has no other way to attract the attention of the audience than to stretch a simple mystery.

The story of “The Maid” is based on its two main female characters, so it was important to get them right. Nina is the most ambiguous and challenging element of the film and fortunately Amanda Seyfried has a good understanding of her and moves the drama forward. His bipolarity, his laughter and tears, his violence, his helplessness and dominance, are all good, and Seyfried has created an unstable character that is presented to the audience from a new angle every time. Nina is not very understandable or believable, which makes her a domineering and annoying presence.

Milly, on the other hand, is what is expected of her. Whether or not Sidney Sweeney has acting talent is another article, but here, he does a decent job of shaping the character. At first glance, Millie seems to be the classic victim of a female thriller, but gradually her contradictory dimensions are revealed; A woman with a dark past and in search of salvation who sometimes eats games and sometimes gives games. Sweeney, in his own way, presents Milly’s ambivalences correctly and does not allow this character to fade in the face of Nina – and Seifred’s dominant performance.

Against these two, the main male character, Andrew, is by far the weaker link in the chain. As mentioned above, his evolution is predictable from the start and his acting lacks the finesse and depth to last alongside Seyfried. But the strangest element of the film is Enzo (Michel Morrone), the Italian gardener of the Winchesters. Apparently they didn’t understand Michele Morone properly, because he plays this character so seriously that it unintentionally comes out funny. It’s as if the movie wants to make fun of itself with this character.

Despite one or two bright spots, “The Servant” is a silly film that seems to deliberately repel more serious cinema audiences. The film tries to pass itself off as a feminist thriller, but remains at the level of a gesture, as it has clearly passed through the filter of the male gaze. Paul Feig’s camera dwells more on Sidney Sweeney’s physique than on exploring the power relations between the three main characters. So here we are facing a duality of speech and behavior. The film wants both God and dates, supports women and presents them in the form of goods.

On the other hand, wherever the narrative needs a shock, the film immediately resorts to naked violence and bloody scenes; As if from Paul Feig’s point of view, violence is the easiest and most accessible tool to create excitement. “Servant” had the potential to become a more serious work and speak thought-provoking words, but it does not pursue such a goal, it wants to be as commercial as possible and its main concern is to create surprises at any cost. Both in terms of structure and script, the film follows a familiar path and never dares to break or reverse the formulas. Of course, more was not expected from the movie adaptation of a second-rate and yellow novel like “Khemttkar”.

Birth certificate of the movie “The Housemaid”

Director: Paul Feig
Author: Rebecca Sonnenschein
Actors: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Skelnar, Michele Morone
Product: 2025, USA
IMDb rating for the movie: 6.8 out of 10
Movie rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Synopsis: Adventures begin with Millie (Sydney Sweeney). A young woman who needs a job and shelter to benefit from the minimum parole. This sensitive situation leads him to lie and cover up because he has no choice but to be hired by Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried). But after being hired, he realizes that…

The review of the movie “Servant” is the author’s personal point of view and is not necessarily the position of Digikala Mag.

Source: Digikala Mag