{"id":274203,"date":"2026-01-31T19:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/274203\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T19:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:21:08","slug":"amanda-seyfrieds-housemaid-performance-is-a-cinema-saving-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/274203\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Seyfried’s “Housemaid” performance is a cinema-saving miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the closing ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival in August 2024 \u2014 after major movies like \u201cThe Brutalist<\/a>,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m Still Here<\/a>,\u201d \u201cBabygirl<\/a>\u201d and \u201cMaria<\/a>\u201d premiered in competition \u2014 the festival\u2019s jury president, Isabelle Huppert<\/a>, approached the microphone with an important announcement. \u201cGood evening, everybody,\u201d Huppert began, her structural, white Balenciaga gown commanding the room\u2019s attention. \u201cI have good news for you: Cinema is in great shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she was correct at the time, Huppert couldn\u2019t have known that her proclamation was actually a prophecy. Cinema wasn\u2019t just in great shape; it was pacing itself, building its strength for one of its most exemplary, most deceptively important films this century: \u201cThe Housemaid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Housemaid\u201d lives and dies by Seyfried\u2019s hand, and she keeps the film cradled in Nina\u2019s white-knuckled grip for each one of its eye-popping 131 minutes. Considering how compelling Seyfried is, it\u2019s no surprise audiences have taken such a shine to the movie, though it is important.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, heaping this much flattery onto a tawdry piece of airport fiction adapted into a Sydney Sweeney<\/a>-starring, big-screen sensation may seem hyperbolic. But if you\u2019ve seen the film yourself, you\u2019ve experienced the feeling I\u2019m referring to \u2014 and if you haven\u2019t, surely someone in your immediate orbit has and would be happy to extol its merits over a glass of dry chablis. That\u2019s just basic math, given that the film has raked in a whopping<\/a> $300 million globally and is still going strong in its theatrical run. People are flocking to the theater in droves to see this movie. And while a cursory examination of the film might ascribe that attribute to the public\u2019s taste for poorly made, mid-tier trash, that conclusion would be wholly incorrect. \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d is far from the formulaic thriller its trailers and general synopsis suggest. In actuality, \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d is about as depraved and delicious as a mainstream film can get, packed with narrative twists and guffaw-worthy choices from everyone involved.<\/p>\n

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(Lionsgate) Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester and Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d<\/p>\n

But none stand as tall as the film\u2019s co-lead, Amanda Seyfried<\/a>, playing the seemingly perfect housewife, Nina Winchester, who hires Sweeney\u2019s down-and-out parolee, Millie, to work and live in her house, and take care of her child, without so much as a background check. A red flag for sure, but it\u2019s not long before Nina is practically loading a harpoon gun with red flags and firing them at her new housemaid, left and right. Seyfried\u2019s performance is, no exaggeration, one of the finest and most mesmerizing turns any actor has given across the thriller genre. She has Nina\u2019s mannerisms detailed down to their minutia. Every gesture, word and expression is a marvel to behold, made all the more stunning by the fact that Seyfried essentially plays three different personality types throughout the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Housemaid\u201d lives and dies by Seyfried\u2019s hand, and she keeps the film cradled in Nina\u2019s white-knuckled grip for each one of its eye-popping 131 minutes. Considering how compelling Seyfried is, it\u2019s no surprise audiences have taken such a shine to the movie, though it is important. A film like \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d delighting viewers this much and making boatloads of cash doing it is a sure sign of cinema\u2019s vitality. It would be ignorant to dismiss how critical this film is for the mid-budget movie\u2019s longevity just because it also happens to be extremely campy. The vulgar kitsch of \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d is its silly secret weapon, and it\u2019s Seyfried who stays reloading the ammunition, making sure that this hefty dose of frivolity is as unforgettable as its conventionally prestigious contemporaries.<\/p>\n

Directed by Paul Feig<\/a> \u2014 who, after helming this and \u201cAnother Simple Favor<\/a>\u201d in the same year, should be considered the king<\/a> of neu-pervert cinema \u2014 \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d often plays like an extended softcore fantasy. There are bare feet and hard nipples abound. Implication and thematic suggestion go hand-in-hand. At times, the movie almost feels like watching something you\u2019re not supposed to see, like staying up past your bedtime to get a peek at late-night television and sexy infomercials.<\/p>\n

Feig and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine cleverly use this teenage-boy-daydream element to reel in male audiences who may be begrudgingly watching with their girlfriends, and Seyfried perfectly plays into the reverie. As soon as Millie begins working for the Winchesters, the sexual tension between the new housemaid and Nina\u2019s husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), is palpable. After a pleasant initial interview and first day on the job, Millie awakens to Nina shouting and smashing things in the kitchen, desperately searching for notes for a speech she has to give at an important PTA meeting. (Seyfried\u2019s prior assertion that the speech needs to be \u201ca barn-burner\u201d \u2014 something she tosses out with a delightful Stepford wife characterization \u2014 is a brilliant throwaway line.) Nina\u2019s breaking dishes and smashing milk jugs on the floor, convinced that Millie threw her notes away. The behavior is a complete 180-degree switch from Nina\u2019s demeanor the day before. Sonnenshine and Feig trust that this outsized display will quickly convey Nina\u2019s vast emotional swings. That something is fueling these outbursts is all the viewer needs to know, and with that information communicated, we can sit back and let Seyfried rip.<\/p>\n

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There is no minimizing what maximalism Seyfried brings to \u201cThe Housemaid.\u201d Nina\u2019s behavior only grows increasingly erratic, and that means Seyfried is free to lean hard into her performance. We\u2019ve long been inundated with mid-budget thrillers and horror movies where actors pull their punches, and for good reasons. Lesser-known actors are hesitant to go full psycho mode lest they be pigeonholed before their careers take off, and more established performers like Seyfried have the privilege to decline roles that feed outdated tropes about hysterical women. \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d initially appears to have those trappings, slowly revealing that Nina is on a steady cocktail of antipsychotics after a trip to the psych ward. And while Seyfried is no stranger to roles that are just as challenging for the viewer as they are for the actor \u2014 and as dimensional as Seyfried as she plays up Nina\u2019s mentality \u2014 even this type of \u201cFatal Attraction<\/a>\u201d hysteria would feel archaic.<\/p>\n

Just as the viewer starts to see the first shades of monotony rising over the horizon, Seyfried and Feig flip the script. (And it\u2019s here where you should stop reading if you want to remain entirely spoiler-free.) As it turns out, Nina isn\u2019t the unhinged madwoman she\u2019s perceived to be. Rather, she\u2019s snared Millie in a trap while desperately trying to wriggle free from one herself. All of this mania and madness has been an over-the-top act to drive a wedge between her and Andrew now that her husband has his sights set on another woman. And though this is not an entirely unexpected plot twist, the film has plenty more up its sleeve, including the opportunity for Seyfried to, once again, turn on a dime.<\/p>\n

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(Daniel McFadden\/Lionsgate) Brandon Sklenar as Andrew Winchester and Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester in \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d<\/p>\n

The characters in movies like these are designed to be expendable fodder for the chills and thrills. Crafting someone that the audience can connect to emotionally is a critical asset to this movie\u2019s larger success. It\u2019s Seyfried who elevates \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d from guilty pleasure status, making it an exhilarating enigma at one moment and genuinely affecting the next.<\/p>\n

Deep inside this winding narrative labyrinth, Seyfried relishes the chance to show off her dynamism. \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d would be enjoyable enough had Seyfried only been giving a layered performance as a mentally ill housewife. (Problematic, sure, but anyone coming to a Feig film looking for political correctness better mosey over to \u201cZootopia 2\u201d in the neighboring auditorium.) But in the third act, Seyfried turns the tables and goes for something smarter, something more extraordinary. We see Nina as the person she was before she met Andrew, and how he lured her in with his dazzling smile and rugged charm, only to pivot to violent, manipulative extremes without warning.<\/p>\n

To say the film handles this shift toward a commentary on the abject violence against women with grace would be a lie. \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d stumbles, and it doesn\u2019t help that Sweeney spends much of the film meandering throughout its narrative like a piece of driftwood that keeps washing back onto the shore. But even when things get shaky, Seyfried is there to buttress the film with a truly inhuman strength. She channels all of Nina\u2019s prior faux delirium into a ferocious finale that raises the stakes tenfold. Making the viewer care about what happens to the characters in a film like this is no small feat. The people in stories like these are designed to be expendable through the film\u2019s ensuing events, fodder for the chills and thrills. Crafting someone that the audience can connect to emotionally is a critical asset to this movie\u2019s larger success. It\u2019s Seyfried who elevates \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d from guilty pleasure status, making it an exhilarating enigma at one moment and genuinely affecting the next.<\/p>\n

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(Lionsgate) Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester in \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Seyfried is as phenomenal here as she is in \u201cThe Testament of Ann Lee<\/a>.\u201d These two roles couldn\u2019t be more different, but Seyfried\u2019s ability to bring each one a uniquely stirring depth can\u2019t be discounted. Her dedication to pursuing complicated parts about exceptionally determined women has set her far apart from her peers. Like \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d itself, Seyfried is full of surprises. It\u2019s not just that we can\u2019t predict what kind of character she\u2019ll play next, but that it\u2019s equally impossible to foresee what expression she might wear for any given scene, or what cadence she\u2019ll deliver her dialogue with \u2014 quite the opposite from a certain marble-mouthed co-star.<\/p>\n

That dissonance works to Seyfried\u2019s advantage here, too, but \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d remains her show. And if audiences are putting up hundreds of millions of dollars to see it, all the better. The fact that so many people are seeing work of this magnitude is a massive net win for cinema in the industry\u2019s unstable modern moment, and not only because the mid-budget movie is making money again. Viewers being exposed to and captivated by Seyfried\u2019s sincerely spectacular work are receiving a gift, perhaps without even realizing it. When we see performances like this, especially in movies where we might not anticipate them, it\u2019s a shrewd reminder that we can never be too sure what we\u2019ll get when we go to the theater. Even the schlocky stuff \u2014 the films we assume will float from our memories the second they\u2019re over \u2014 can turn out to be barn-burners as unforgettable as a good PTA speech.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

about why we go to the movies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the closing ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival in August 2024 \u2014 after major movies like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":{"0":"post-274203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}