In case there was any doubt, after the last six months of culture-war bullshit, that Sydney Sweeney is a genuine movie star, that’s all removed by The Housemaid, a delightfully trashy psychological thriller that’s full of twists and double-backs. Based on a popular novel by Freida McFadden, The Housemaid has Sweeney facing off against Amanda Seyfried in a domestic war of wills. I get the feeling it’ll be a surprise hit this holiday season.
The Housemaid’s director, Paul Feig, directed 2018’s A Simple Favor, another film about two feuding women, which I remember describing as “a hoot,” and the same description applies here. Feig also directed a sequel, Another Simple Favor, earlier this year, but The Housemaid is the much better film, and not only because it’s completely devoid of identical twins or triplets.
The setup is that Millie (Sweeney) is a troubled young woman, just out of prison for reasons first unexplained, who lies about her credentials to land a job as a housemaid for a wealthy family. The parents are Nina (Seyfried), who’s using a veneer of WASP domestic perfection to hide troubles, and her husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), a rich guy with seemingly few business responsibilities. The family’s opulent house is like a fourth major character, even as the film telegraphs, in the first scene, where the third-act fight is going to take place.
The family’s under social pressure from judgmental moms, and Andrew’s even icier mother (Elizabeth Perkins); the film treats its rich Long Island milieu as a pit of vipers. This leads to Nina having frequent “crashouts,” mostly directed at Millie. There’s one big twist, which fills in some backstory and recontextualizes everything, but the film never takes itself that seriously and is content to serve as fun trash.
Sklenar never pushes past generic handsome man territory, but both actresses are impressive, especially with Seyfried getting a few different registers to play, depending on what’s going on with the plot. I wasn’t as taken with her awards-push movie The Testament of Ann Lee as some others were, but she’s good, and does well in a part that’s as different as can be.
But it’s Sweeney who’s really a star here, commanding the camera whenever she’s on screen. Throughout the year, after her jeans ad and the attendant nonsense that surrounded it, Sweeney’s movie appearances (Americana, Eden, Echo Valley, and Christy) have de-emphasized the sexuality and the skin. That’s not the case with The Housemaid; throughout, there are countless closeups of Sweeney’s cleavage, legs, and ass. The actress doesn’t need that to deliver a good performance, as anyone who’s seen her Reality Winner movie, Reality, knows.