The Housemaid Is a Suitably Tawdry Staredown Between Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney

"The classic superficial division between women pitted against each other, usually but not always by men, is brunette versus blonde. The Housemaid, a movie adaptation of the same-named bestselling novel, finds a new aesthetic perhaps more befitting a time where almost anyone can go blonde with a good enough stylist: sleepy-eyed versus saucer-eyed. What this surface-level split is supposed to connote is less clear."

"Despite her expressive, attentive eyes, Nina (Amanda Seyfried) doesn't seem to notice any problems with her younger, vaguely evasive, and cleavage-forward houseguest-except, appropriately enough, when she shows up to work not wearing the glasses she sported during her interview. Nina more gives the impression that she may have made this hire on a mood-swing impulse, maybe without informing her handsome husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar, the latest in a long line of director Paul Feig 's slightly bland himbos) or her daughter Cece (Indiana Elle)."

"Andrew and Cece may look taken aback, but it's Nina's good mood that doesn't last. After treating Millie to some well-appointed hospitality, she swiftly becomes a boss from hell, giving her conflicting instructions and flying into indiscriminate rages at perceived infractions. She reverts to sweetness just occasionally enough for the audience to wonder if there could be identical twins afoot-if that twist hadn't already been used up in another Feig movie about two women with an unhealthily entwined relationship."

The Housemaid follows heavy-lidded Millie, a desperate parolee who fabricates her CV to secure a live-in housemaid position with Nina, an inattentive, saucer-eyed homemaker. Millie's presence unsettles Nina's household, and Nina alternates between hospitality and volatile cruelty, issuing conflicting instructions and erupting in disproportionate rages. Nina's husband Andrew and daughter Cece react with bewilderment while the family's composure unravels. The film foregrounds visual contrasts and power imbalances, relies on mood swings as a plot engine, and gestures toward genre twists and director Paul Feig's recurring themes of obsessions between women.

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