Yesterday my nephew and I went to a matinee of The Housemaid and I thought it was really fun and entertaining. Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) is desperate for a live-in position as a maid for a wealthy couple, Nina and Andrew Winchester (Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar, respectively) because she needs employment and housing as conditions for her parole (a fact which she omits from her resume). She is excited when she is offered the job because the Winchesters have the perfect house and seem like the perfect couple but she is surprised when Nina's behavior becomes increasingly unhinged, particularly when Nina gaslights Millie into thinking that she didn't make certain requests after she complies. Andrew continually apologizes for Nina and Millie feels sympathy for his situation after she learns from Nina's friends that she has a history of mental illness. She eventually begins an affair with Andrew but soon discovers that things are not what they seem in the Winchester house. This is a very twisty psychological thriller and, even though I predicted one of the twists, I was very surprised by several others (I haven't read the best-selling novel by Freida McFadden upon which this is based). I loved Seyfried's over the top performance, Sklenar's steamy and diabolical one, and Elizabeth Perkins's brief appearance as Andrew's imperious mother, but they all make Sweeney seem very bland in comparison (even Indiana Elle, as Nina and Andrew's young daughter CeCe, has more charisma than Sweeney). Sweeney notwithstanding, this is definitely a guilty pleasure full of secrets and sex that is best seen with a big crowd (there were lots of book club girlies in our audience) and I recommend it as such.
Note: The needle drops are so on the nose (especially the final one by Taylor Swift) that I frequently laughed out loud when they began playing!
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