The Housemaid

Review:
Continuing my wife & I’s tradition of going to the movie theater on New Year’s Day, our third annual trip took us to ‘The Housemaid’ and I came out more positive than I was expecting! I thought the three lead performances were good at varying degrees. Amanda Seyfried definitely cleared as the best, giving her all from start to finish, and willing to go campy when necessary, which really worked. I’ve only seen Brandon Sklenar in two other films and this was definitely his best performance that I’d seen. I’ll keep this spoiler free, but just say that it was fun getting to see him do more in the second half. And Sydney Sweeney was also in the movie. She seemed like she really didn’t want to be there for the majority of the movie (the actress, not the character), but I actually thought her performance improved a ton in the final third of the film, after the big exposition dump.

High: I think director Paul Feig took what was a pretty predictable story and presented in a way that made it an enjoyable watch. I have no knowledge of the source material, but I think it’s pretty easy to guess where the story is going to go. But like I said, there’s still enough substance to be invested, which I’ll credit to Feig.

Low: There were a lot of times that the theater was reacting in a way that I’m not sure was intended. We laughed a lot at times you were meant to laugh, but I also feel like there was a lot of laughing at times not meant for a laugh. I think the main reason I’d point to that was Sweeney’s delivery of a lot of the dialogue.

Rating: 7.5/10