Sydney Sweeney is everywhere these days, whether that’s jet-setting to Jeff Bezos’ wedding in Italy, going full goth for a GQ event or showing her excitement to be on Celebrity Family Feud. But her work on the big screen isn’t done this year, as she and Amanda Seyfried are set to star in the highly anticipated book-to-screen adaptation The Housemaid. Critics have seen the film ahead of its December 19 release, and it doesn’t sound like Sweeney needs to worry about bad reviews.
Based on the 2022 novel by Freida McFadden, The Housemaid follows Millie (Sydney Sweeney), who becomes the live-in housekeeper for Nina (Amanda Seyfried) and her husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) only to discover dark secrets within the household. McFadden boldly claimed she liked the movie better than her book, and Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting respectfully agrees, rating the film 4 out of 5 skulls and saying that Paul Feig lets his stars cut loose in the most darkly comedic and violent ways. She continues:
An endless string of dangerous secrets and an explosive performance by Seyfried keep you firmly on the hook until the pent-up tension explodes into insanity, as camp, violence, and empowerment collide. It’s a crowd-pleaser through and through, one meant to be seen with a rowdy audience on board with the wild swings taken. Feig and Sonnenshine push the novel’s more outrageous aspects even further, injecting even bigger thrills, twists, and stakes. It’s the type of operatic insanity that practically begs for more.
Amanda Seyfried, especially, dances on the knife's edge between comedy and tragedy, William Bibbiani of The Wrap says, but both actresses seem to be having the time of their lives. The critic calls the adaptation “weirder and funnier than you expect,” writing:
The Housemaid is a dream come true, sometimes for the characters, but certainly for the filmmakers, who get to cannonball into a glistening pool of high camp and splash it all over their audience. It’s glorious, angry, hilarious, nail-biting fun from a director, writer and cast who all know exactly what they’re doing, and relish in the fact that they’re practically getting away with murder. The Housemaid wipes the floor with our expectations, and when it’s all over we can see our own faces in the tiles, and we’re grinning with glee.
Owen Gleiberman of Variety says The Housemaid is different from other thrillers like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. It’s over-the-top, but it’s clever, Gleiberman says, calling the movie “nothing more (or less) than a garishly fun and effective piece of postfeminist pulp.” The critic continues:
It’s a movie of diabolical developments, and that’s what’s captivating about it. That, and Elizabeth Perkins’ droll performance as a mother-in-law from WASP hell, and the fact that in following the ins and outs that made the novel such a hit, the film creates an ideology of male-female relationships that’s at once timely, glibly mythological, and born to be milked by a Hollywood thriller.
Pete Hammond of Deadline says The Housemaid is “mad fun” — “Another Simple Favor on steroids” — and you may hate yourself for indulging in its “unapologetic trashiness.” His review continues:
As it goes along I found my mouth agape at the sheer audacity of the story and its heightened horror: What you thought you knew is not the case and taken to such extremes it defies belief, which is precisely the point here. The book, and now the movie, wants to keep changing the stakes. Each of these main characters go from one level to another, back and forth, so that you are never sure who you are rooting for.
Kate Erbland of IndieWire is less impressed with Paul Feig’s newest thriller, save for what Amanda Seyfried brings to her performance. The director is too timid to go full camp, but it’ll suffice as counter-programming over the holiday season, Erbland says. She grades the movie a C+, writing:
The Housemaid is meant to hinge on twists and shocks and surprises, but it proves to be much more sturdy (and just plain fun) when leaning into its absurdities. Running over two hours, the entire thing sparks when Seyfried is on screen, and flails when she’s not. Too bad it’s not called The Housewife.
With adjectives like "campy" and "trashy" being thrown around, it really sounds like audiences are in for a fun time with this one, logic be damned. If you want to check out The Housemaid, the movie hits theaters on Friday, December 19.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
