HOUSEMAID, THE
(director/writer: Paul Feig; screenwriters: based on the book by Frieda McFadden, Rebecca Sonnenshine; cinematographer: John Schwartzman; editor: Brent White; music: Theodore Shapiro; cast: Sydney Sweeney (Millie Calloway), Amanda Seyfried (Nina Winchester), Brandon Skenar (Andrew Winchester), Michele Morrone (Enzo), Ellen Tamaki (Patrice), Elizabeth Perkins (Mrs. Winchester), Indiana Elle (Cece Winchester), Amanda Joy Erickson (Suzanne), Sarah Cooper (Pam, parole officer), Megan Ferguson (Jiliane), Peter Colandro (Cashier), Don DiPetta (Officer Jenkins), Lamar Baucom-Slaughter (Officer Stanley); Runtime: 131; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Paul Feig, Todd Lieberman, Laura Fischer; Lionsgate; 2025)
“I just found it trashy.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A manipulative over-the-top female-centric 1990s-like shallow pulp film. The psychological thriller about women empowerment is directed and written by the filmmaker Paul Feig (“A Simple Favor”/”Jackpot!”). It’s based on the 2022 best-selling novel by Frieda McFadden, a doctor who also maintains a writing career. Feig co-writes the unimpressive screenplay with Rebecca Sonnenshine.
It doesn’t transfer well from the book to the screen because it does not trust its viewers to figure things out on their own without force-feeding them the answers expected.
The 20-something Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) nervously applies for a housemaid’s position with the wealthy suburban Winchester family, on Great Neck, Long Island, in New York. The home-owner Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) warmly shows her around the luxury mansion designed by her hunky husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar). Millie’s hired without a background check, as her impressive résumé turns out to be a lie. In reality Millie’s an ex-con (her crime is revealed later on in the story) whose parole officer (Sarah Cooper) requires her to keep a job as a condition to stay on parole (which doesn’t sound legally right because such a condition for parole doesn’t exist). At the moment Millie is unemployed and lives out of her car.
Millie accepts the job but is met with suspicious looks by the gardener Enzo (Michele Morrone), with hostility by the couple’s surly adolescent daughter Cece (Indiana Elle) she will be a nanny for, and with disdain by Nina’s snooty mother-in-law Evelyn (Elizabeth Perkins). At least the genial Andrew treats her nicely.
Millie moves into the tiny unlivable attic room, once a storage room, that barely fits a bed inside it. The live-in maid hopes things will turn out well (but if that was so we wouldn’t have a movie).
The next morning Nina becomes unhinged screaming at Millie for losing her speech notes needed for an upcoming PTA meeting, but without having any proof. The unstable Nina also lends Millie her car, and then reports it stolen. Andrew is aware of his wife’s mental problems and tries to smoothen things out.
Nina becomes jealous that hubbies attracted to the housemaid and becomes angry at him when he sleeps with her overnight after taking her into the city to see a Broadway show she won’t attend.
The messy plot can be enjoyed by some as a guilty pleasure treat for its well-acted and entertaining trashy pulp story. I just found it trashy.
REVIEWED ON 12/31/2025 GRADE: C+
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