The Housemaid makes up for a few hiccups with a series of sharply staged shocks, resulting in a fun and satisfying thriller, notes Mayur Sanap.
Early on in The Housemaid, we meet Sydney Sweeney's Millie as she interviews for a live-in maid position at the Winchesters' luxurious residence.
From the moment she walks in, you can tell something isn't quite right about the family she hopes to work for.
The interview is assessed by Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), a seemingly polished housewife who clearly has something going on about her.
But it's not just Nina. Something is off about Millie as well.
She is desperate for the job, and it soon becomes clear that she has forged documents and lied on her resume to secure it.
Millie is hired and she moves into the Winchester home, which also includes Nina's suave, handsome husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and their young daughter.
Andrew positions himself as this perfect gentleman with charming smiles and unusually kind nature.
Millie can't help but feel drawn to him, which sets the tension between the characters.
The film wastes no time in establishing the eerie tone.
There is one nicely deranged moment in the beginning where Nina casually jokes, with a smile, 'Oh my God! What kind of monsters are we?'
This seemingly harmless line foreshadows much darker turns in the narrative, one character at a time.
The first half unfolds very much like Paul Feig's earlier directorial A Simple Favour, a fun and fashionable thriller starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively.
Here, he draws the story from Freida McFadden's 2022 psychological thriller novel and turns the material into an intense, engaging thriller. If you are unfamiliar with the book, as I was, the twists are very satisfying to watch.
The narrative initially unfolds through Millie's perspective before shifting to Amanda's Nina, a change that sheds light on what's really going on beneath the surface.
This structural shift is similar to Gone Girl, where changing points of view deepen the twists and add new layers upon the characters.
Yes, a few moments verge on the silly and require a healthy suspension of disbelief, but this is where Director Feig leans into deadpan humour he earlier showcased in films like Bridesmaids and Spy.
This light touch of comedy makes most of these scenes land, aided significantly by killer performances from both Sydney and Amanda, but especially Amanda, who is utterly captivating in her deliciously unhinged turn as Nina.
As the story progresses, it becomes clear that there is far more to these people than meets the eye.
What might initially seem like a straightforward thriller gradually reveals itself as a surprisingly layered, character-driven drama that ultimately bares itself as a refreshingly unique feminist tale.
The film takes a bit too long to say what it wants to say, and even lags slightly in the process.
But with narrative twists this wild, it would have been easy for this film to go off the rails.
Still, The Housemaid stays the ground and makes up for a few hiccups with a series of sharply staged shocks, resulting in a fun and satisfying thriller.
The Housemaid Review Rediff Rating: 
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