Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried star in The Housemaid. Photo: Lionsgate<\/p>\n
The Housemaid is a mystery thriller, clearly influenced by films such as Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction. But despite showing potential, it falls flat and fails to deliver.<\/p>\n
Directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, A Simple Favour) the film stars Sydney Sweeney as Millie, a down on her luck young woman who begins working as a housemaid for a filthy rich family known as the Winchesters.<\/p>\n
All seems well to begin with but as she grows closer to the family, which consists of Nina, Andrew and their daughter Cece, both her and the couple\u2019s dark pasts become more apparent.<\/p>\n
For the sake of avoiding spoilers that’s all I’ll say about the plot.<\/p>\n
However, I have many criticisms of the writing.<\/p>\n
It’s often a good thing when you can’t guess what’s going to happen in a thriller, but this is not the case in The Housemaid.<\/p>\n
The writers back themselves into a corner roughly half way through the film and use some of the most convenient plotting of 2025 to try to make the film work.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, by this point it’s too late. The first hour of the film works. However the rest of the film just goes from one ridiculous twist to the next.<\/p>\n
Intentional or not The Housemaid also has some of the most cringeworthy dialogue seen in a long time.<\/p>\n
This is also accompanied by some wildly out of place \u201cneedle drops\u201d whereby popular songs were introduced in an attempt to elevate some of the scenes.<\/p>\n
It might be some people’s thing but all I found was that it removed me from the drama whenever the story felt like it was going somewhere.<\/p>\n
As for the cast, Sweeney is okay, but as with a lot of her films, The Housemaid doesn’t use her acting ability or star power to great effect.<\/p>\n
Amanda Seyfried gives a poor account of herself as Nina, swinging back and forth between a badly delivered line and an annoying scream.<\/p>\n
Brandon Sklenar’s plays Andrew and gives what can only be described as an average performance. Nothing really wrong with it and nothing really right with it.<\/p>\n
As for the positives, there are moments in the first hour of The Housemaid that could be funny – however they were few and far between.<\/p>\n
Overall the frustrating thing about The Housemaid is that in the hands of a top tier director this could’ve been something really good.<\/p>\n
It has one of the biggest film stars in the world leading it. But, unfortunately, all it amounts to is being a forgettable disappointment.<\/p>\n
By Zach Martin<\/p>\n