Dir: Paul Feig | Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar | US 2025
The Housemaid is a shamelessly raunchy thriller that follows much the same path as the usual ‘home-help’ sub-genre fare along the lines of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. Based on a best-seller book it stars Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried as tousled haired twenty-somethings in upstate New York.
Trying to escape her shady past Sydney Sweeney’s Millie lands a job at a swanky mansion to look after little Ceci, the precocious genetic daughter of Andrew (Sklenar), and his wife Nina (Seyfried) who is desperately trying to have a kid of her own.
But fertility drugs are creating havoc for Nina and erratic mood swings are turning her into a harridan. Or at least that’s what we’re led to believe from her behaviour as she the turns the house upside down with her tantrums. Our sympathies are with Millie from the offset. A boorish Italian gardener, a hostile mother in law and a brace of bitchy female friends round off the cast of this silly erotic film from director Paul Feig. The Housemaid gets more absurd by the minute as nothing is what it seems due to secrets, lies and power-play in bland suburban backwater
The plot starts to go pear-shaped when Andrew offers to step in to spend a pre-booked weekend with Millie: the busty blond is apparently stuck for a partner to join her. Really? With a body like hers and an appealing personality it seems unlikely she has no friends.
At first Nina seems to adore Millie but soon she picks up the palpable attraction between the maid and her suave hulk Andrew who is more than accommodating when Millie makes the odd faux pas, leaving her unsure of Andrew – or indeed – Nina’s real motivations in this lighthearted schlocky piece of Christmas holiday puff. Compelling but utterly idiotic @MeredithTaylor
In UK cinemas from 26 December