The Housemaid
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried star in an engrossing, trashy thriller that knows how to keep its audience guessing.
A clean slate: Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried
Image courtesy of Lionsgate.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) is really, really good at her job. She is eager to please, can bake a mean quiche, bends over backwards to accommodate her employers’ disagreeable daughter and pretty much keeps herself to herself when she’s not needed. You could say she was the perfect housemaid.
And Millie has landed a cushy number. With rent-free accommodation, she is given the run of the substantial Winchester family home, including the luxurious TV room, and is inundated with expensive designer clothes that Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) no longer needs. And then there’s Nina’s husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), the insanely rich owner of a data processing company whose good looks, charm and compassion is matched only by his 1,000-kilowatt smile and body of a Greek god. But, of course, nothing is what it seems…
Before the film starts peeling off the fingernails of this idealistic scenario, it should be noted that the director is Paul Feig, known for his broad comedies Bridesmaids, The Heat and Spy. And this is a broad psychological thriller. Feig did dabble in the darker side of things with the deliciously playful A Simple Favour and its distinctly inferior sequel Another Simple Favour, but outright comedy would appear to be his forte.
Sydney Sweeney, who has rocketed from scream queen to one of the most interesting actresses of her generation virtually overnight, underplays the role of Millie to the point that you wonder why Nina employed her in the first place. On the other hand, Amanda Seyfried’s ebullient lady of the manor is so over-the-top that one suspects something must be awry. Andrew, before he lays on the charm, seems taken aback by Millie’s unexpected employment, while the Winchesters’ seven-year-old daughter Cece (Indiana Elle) could hardly be less welcoming. But Millie really, really needs this job…
The cinema can make us laugh, jump and shudder. It can even educate us. The Housemaid, though, is a different beast: it deals in the art of discomfort. Yet, in its exaggerated way, the movie is vastly compelling, even as some surprising plot developments just don’t seem to stack up. Just as it plies us with exposition while at the same time withholding vital pieces of information, The Housemaid keeps us guessing. And it does so with elan, even while the dialogue feels scripted and the love scenes choreographed and no character really seems to be an actual, spontaneous human being. What the film does do is deliver the goods. So, for those who are not too fussed about plausibility, they should be heartily entertained.
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins, Indiana Elle, Amanda Joy Erickson, Sarah Cooper, Megan Ferguson, Ellen Tamaki.
Dir Paul Feig, Pro Todd Lieberman, Laura Fischer and Paul Feig, Ex Pro Freida McFadden, Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, Screenplay Rebecca Sonnenshine, from the novel by Freida McFadden, Ph John Schwartzman, Pro Des Elizabeth Jones, Ed Brent White, Music Theodore Shapiro, Costumes Renee Ehrlich Kalfus, Sound Tim Walston.
Hidden Pictures/Pretty Dangerous Pictures-Lionsgate.
131 mins. USA. 2025. US Rel: 19 December 2025. UK Rel: 26 December 2025. Cert. 15
