There’s nothing quite like a Paul Feig thriller, which is unfortunate, because I wish there were a lot more things like “A Simple Favor,” “Another Simple Favor” and now “The Housemaid.” Feig sometimes stumbles when he doesn’t have a tight screenplay to keep him focused, and some of his lesser efforts fall prey to incessant, extended ad-libs that pad the runtime, interrupt the pacing and water down the gags. But when Feig has a clever script, he consistently turns out pitch-perfect, intelligent thrillers with genuine, unsettling suspense and winking, kitschy humor.
His latest, “The Housemaid,” stars Sydney Sweeney as Millie, who applies for a job working and living in the home of a fancy, wealthy family. Amanda Seyfried plays Nina, who hires Millie and at first seems like the perfect employer. She’s generous, trusting and willing to overlook Millie’s extremely suspicious resumé. It turns out Millie needs this job because she’s on parole, for a crime nobody wants to reveal, and if she can’t stay employed — and if she can’t keep a roof over her head — she’ll wind up back in prison.
All that is to say, Millie has to keep this gig, so she’ll put up with just about anything Nina can dish out. And Nina will dish out a lot of punishment, because Nina is not a well person. She lies to Millie, she blames Millie for mistakes Millie never made and eventually she starts verbally abusing her. Nina’s rich, sympathetic and distractingly attractive husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), puts up with Nina’s tirades for the sake of their daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle). But the strain is taking a toll, and after a while this beautiful, younger woman living in Andrew’s house starts looking pretty good to him. Or, you know, looking even better. Or at least looking lower maintenance.
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Seyfried is an incredibly versatile performer. This month alone she’s also starring in “The Testament of Ann Lee,” playing a religious prophet in colonial America who also has sick dance moves. “The Housemaid” gives Seyfried an opportunity to go large. Very large. So large that many other actors and filmmakers would struggle to make it work. But Feig creates an atmosphere where Seyfried’s exaggerated behavior feels, well, not “normal,” but appropriate to the occasion. This is a movie about being trapped in a house with a dangerous person, unable to leave because of an unjust judicial system and the harsh realities of economic hardship, and that’s disturbing. But it’s not entirely serious. So Seyfried is free — and nimble enough — to dance on the knife edge between comedy and tragedy.
She’s well met by Sweeney, who is our entry point into this house of horrors. Rebecca Sonnenshine’s screenplay, based on the 2022 novel by Freida McFadden, introduces Millie as the voice of reason. That is to say, the voice of the working class. She’s happy just to brush her teeth in a private bathroom for a change, so the perks of her job offset the chaotic energy in the household. But she’s still an outsider peeking in on this wealthy world, and she’s appropriately disdainful about how out of touch this family is, but understandably jealous — maybe even in awe — of their life of luxury.
“The Housemaid” has its twists, and you’ll probably see some of them coming a mile off, even if you don’t know exactly how the secrets will be revealed or what form the danger will take. On more than one occasion, the twist is that “The Housemaid” is even weirder and funnier than you expect — and that’s a welcome surprise.
The plot, once it’s laid completely bare, is nonsense on multiple levels but Feig’s film never pretends that it’s all plausible. There’s an ingeniously arch quality to “The Housemaid’s” timing, dialogue and editing that assures us that, yes, this is all very intentional, and yes, we are allowed to simply roll with it. This is supposed to be a good time, even when it’s a little disgusting.
What’s more, both Sweeney and Seyfried look like they’re having the time of their lives. “The Housemaid” is a dream come true, sometimes for the characters, but certainly for the filmmakers, who get to cannonball into a glistening pool of high camp and splash it all over their audience. It’s glorious, angry, hilarious, nail-biting fun from a director, writer and cast who all know exactly what they’re doing, and relish in the fact that they’re practically getting away with murder. “The Housemaid” wipes the floor with our expectations, and when it’s all over we can see our own faces in the tiles, and we’re grinning with glee.
