Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in ‘The Housemaid’. Photograph Credit score: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate.
Opening in theaters on December 19 is ‘The Housemaid,’ directed by Paul Feig and starring Amanda Seyfried, Sydney Sweeney, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Indiana Elle, Megan Ferguson, Ellen Tamaki, and Elizabeth Perkins.
“Uncover what lies behind closed doorways.”
Launch Date: Dec 19, 2025
Run Time: 2 hr 11 min
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Preliminary Ideas
(L to R) Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway and Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester in ‘The Housemaid’. Photograph Credit score: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate.
Too typically nowadays, a trailer for a brand new film sells you a special expertise than the one you finally find yourself seeing – making one thing darker look funnier than it’s, for instance. There’s no such downside with ‘The Housemaid’: based mostly on the best-selling novel by Freida McFadden, director Paul Feig’s adaptation is strictly what it guarantees: a campy, twisty psychological thriller, laced with laughs and a story that just about makes enjoyable of itself – till it doesn’t.
Feig – who appears to search out his greatest groove these days with potboilers like this and ‘A Easy Favor’ – navigates the story’s twists and turns largely efficiently, aided by his trio of lead performers. Whereas the movie’s third act spins off the rails a bit by way of tone and management, it nonetheless manages to be entertaining, with a crowd-pleaser of an ending that may ship audiences out satiated.
Story and Path
(L to R): Sydney Sweeney as Millie and Amanda Seyfried as Nina in ‘The Housemaid’. Photograph: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate.
Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) applies for a job as a live-in housemaid with Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), a seemingly nice if high-strung homemaker who lives in her extravagant Lengthy Island mansion together with her reasonably cheeky daughter Cici (Indiana Elle) and good-looking, charming, and effortlessly attentive husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar).
Millie, regardless of mendacity about her background and hiding the truth that she’s sleeping in her automobile and on parole after serving 10 years in jail, will get the job – solely to search out out as soon as she begins that Nina is hiding a number of secrets and techniques of her personal, together with the truth that she spent 9 months in a psych ward for causes revealed a lot later. Proper off the half, Nina’s temper swings and capriciously merciless remedy of Millie point out that one thing is flawed, together with the suspicious conduct of the groundskeeper, Enzo (Michele Morrone, from Netflix’s ‘365 Days’ sexathons). Fortunately, Andrew is there to consolation Millie – even when his lingering glances point out that he needs greater than that.
(L to R) Brandon Sklenar as Andrew Winchester and Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester in ‘The Housemaid’. Photograph Credit score: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate.
For a lot of its first two-thirds, ‘The Housemaid’ follows a seemingly standard narrative virtually to a fault, however the go-for-broke performances from its leads, precision needle drops, and Feig’s skillful balancing act of camp and psychological cat-and-mouse hold it totally participating. The world of wealth and privilege that the Winchesters inhabit can also be roasted fairly handily, due to Andrew’s virtually ridiculously snooty mom (Elizabeth Perkins) and the native housewives, who at one level gossip about Nina after she leaves the room – regardless that Millie, who’s all however invisible to them, continues to be there and might hear every part.
‘The Housemaid’ turns into predictable sufficient at a sure level that it virtually screams {that a} twist is coming – one which is kind of telegraphed – and when that rug-pull is revealed, the film tumbles into some surprisingly darker territory. It’s within the ultimate third that Feig and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine lose a few of their grip on the fabric, diverging a bit from the ebook and stretching issues out a bit too lengthy with one betrayal or turnaround after one other. But ‘The Housemaid’ nonetheless wraps up properly, its conclusion each satisfying and leaving the door open for a continuation (McFadden did write two follow-up novels).
Solid and Performances
(L to R): Amanda Seyfried as Nina and Sydney Sweeney as Millie in ‘The Housemaid’. Photograph: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate.
‘The Housemaid’ opens one week earlier than ‘The Testomony of Ann Lee,’ additionally starring Amanda Seyfried, and also you’re not prone to see two extra completely different performances in theaters this yr. That’s a praise to the immense vary of Seyfried, who performs Nina as an unpredictable climate sample whose subsequent ferocious storm will probably be adopted simply as rapidly by a quick ray of sunshine. She retains the viewers off-balance all through with a broad-strokes, jangling vitality and does pampered housewife simply in addition to she does colonial spiritual chief.
Sweeney is extra low-key as a counterpoint, and a bit extra restricted in her vary right here than in her underrated ‘Christy’ from earlier this fall, however her seemingly submissive floor seethes subtly with a coiled watchfulness and smirking sense of play. As Andrew, Brandon Sklenar has the mandatory bodily presence to promote the character’s in-your-face masculinity, however in any other case his preliminary blandness comes throughout virtually as a parody but fits the contours of his character.
Last Ideas
Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in ‘The Housemaid’. Photograph: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate.
‘The Housemaid’ might really feel at occasions like a kind of frivolously erotic true-crime dramas which might be the stock-in-trade of Netflix (and there’s a smattering of sultry scenes right here), however Paul Feig and his main women give it a cinematic gloss and a way of satire that will typically elude that oversaturated style.
Playful and enjoyable at some factors, unnervingly darkish at others, ‘The Housemaid’ would possibly find yourself being what some grownups need for date evening on the motion pictures this vacation season as a substitute of speaking Disney animals or the blue cat folks of Pandora (not that there’s something flawed with these, in fact). At a time when pulpy, provocative, adult-oriented motion pictures are tougher to search out, ‘The Housemaid’ could also be simply the assist you to’re in search of.
‘The Housemaid’ receives a rating of 80 out of 100.
Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester in ‘The Housemaid’. Photograph: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate.
What’s the plot of ‘The Housemaid’?
When Millie Calloway takes a job as live-in housemaid to the rich but moody Nina Winchester and her enticing, charming husband Andrew, it’s solely a matter of time earlier than darkish secrets and techniques, weird occurrences, and hidden passions erupt within the Winchesters’ seemingly good lives.
Who’s within the forged of ‘The Housemaid’?
- Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway
- Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester
- Brandon Sklenar as Andrew Winchester
- Michele Morrone as Enzo
- Elizabeth Perkins as Evelyn Winchester
- Indiana Elle as Cecilia Winchester
- Megan Ferguson as Jilianne
- Ellen Tamaki as Patrice
‘The Housemaid’ opens in theaters on December nineteenth.