There are a lot of films that have come out over the years that have been based on books. Biopics, true stories, and everything in between. Quite a few have been made based on best sellers that readers have been raving about. The rights to best sellers can easily be picked and turned around pretty quickly by seasoned writers and directors. The latest in this vain is “The Housemaid.” It’s based on the best seller of the same name from author Freida McFadden and is directed by Paul Feig. No stranger to female led thrillers like this one. He directed both “Simple Plan” films. This one is definitely going to be followed and probably revered by the similar crowd that loved those movies. It’s just not me. I found this film to be unsufferable in its execution and result.

Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney, Christie) is a young woman who is struggling and is applying for a job as a housemaid for an affluent family, The Wnchesters. At first the wife, Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried, The Testament of Ann Lee) gets along with her new hire, but as time goes by they start to resent each other because the Seyfried character has a bit of psychological problems. She starts to be jealous of her young employee. She also starts to have issues with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Slkenar, Drop), who has taken to this pretty young woman. This causes issues for this family. More than I expected.

Sweeney has been having a great year as an actress. She’s been everywhere lately. She’s being considered for awards for her fantastic portrayal of Christie Martin in Christie and has played an innocent yet capable server at a diner who falls in love with a loveaable loser, Paul Walter Hauser, in Americana. Along with a controversial jeans add. Her role her is probably the most straightforward of everything she’s done this year. Despite this film not being very good, she is fine in the role of this young woman who has a checkered past. She does have a few good lines of dialogue and has good chemistry with her co-stars. She has proven to me that she can play any character she takes, but the story failed her and her co-stars here. The good thing is she’ll have something new coming around the corner and that something new in “Euphoria” Season 3 in January,  where she made her name. I can’t wait for that.

Amanda Seyfried is another actress garnering a lot of awards buzz for her role in “The Testament of Ann Lee.” She’s amazing in that role. I’ve also loved her in some of her television/streaming roles in shows such as “The Dropout” and “Long Bright River.” She has come a long way since her days of “Mamma Mia” and “Mean Girls. ” This time around, she doesn’t give awards worthy performance. She’s over the top and annoying. Maybe others would find this performance interesting but not me. She just came across like nails on a chalkboard to me. I found myself shaking my head and putting my head back thinking why am I watching this movie. She didn’t have me believing anything other than what the script gave her, and that was a crazy wife who needed psychological help. Don’t feed me dog shit and tell me it’s caviar when I know it’s not. I was so over her after the first five minutes I saw her screen, and that’s not a good thing. I know she has great performances in her because I’ve seen them. This was just not it. Her chemistry with the other actors was fine, but that’s about it.

Sklenar is mainly an actor known for his role in the terrific Western television/streaming series ” 1923″, the spin-off “Yellowstone”. Since then he’s broken out as a film star in such movies as “It Ends With Us” and “Drop”. He usually plays the nice guy who ends up in a crazy love triangle or wild plot against his date. This time around, though, he does something different from the dutiful husband in the middle between his crazy wife and a young woman who just wanted a steady job and a place to stay. It was a bit odd seeing him change his persona on screen but I liked it. It showed me he has range as an actor.  Seeing actors do the same old thing over and over again is boring. This performance wasn’t boring at all. In fact I liked him better than his award winning co-star Seyfried.  He did have good chemistry with Sweeney, though, and I liked that. I hope he takes more chances like this in the future, but his performance was lost in a film that was too crazy for even him and Sweeney to save.

Paul Fiege is a director who I loved watching his films in the past. “The Bridesmaids, “Spy”, ” “Heat,” and others have made me laugh. I even found “A Simple Favor” mildly entertaining. Lately, I’ve felt his stuff isn’t for me. It’s like he’s trying too hard to break out of the comedy mold he started in to try and make other kinds of movies, but they rent working for me. Maybe they’ve worked for others in the past, but I’m not part of those demographics. This film is another of his I wasn’t fond of. It’s way to over the top. It doesn’t know if it’s a thriller or horror film. Even the actors are doing different things with their performances.  They didn’t know what to do with his direction and their performances.  That’s not a good thing when actors are doing conflicting things. I wish Fieg would have just stayed in the comedy lane, which made me laugh as a filmgoer. I feel bad in saying this, but this movie may have been better off in a different directors hands. Maybe one who is better off with directing horror/thriller material. I’m sure Feig will be back again with another film. Let’s hope it’s better than this one was for me.

The Housemaid” is a contrived mess of a film. It didn’t know what it wanted to be. An over the top horror comedy or a straightforward thriller. Even though it’s based on real events, it doesn’t mean the story is going to be good. Whether it’s the direction by Feig or the story, it’s too predictable and utterly ridiculous. Even the actors didn’t know what they were supposed to be doing. Sklenar and Sweeney were fine, but Seyfriend was way too over the top and comedic. As a whole cast was fine, but the  movie wasn’t very good. Maybe as counter-programming against “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” it’ll do fine with mothers, daughters of a proper age, and older sisters looking to go see something else. I was just shaking my head and rolling my eyes with how crazy in a bad way this film was. All of these actors and the director will bounce back, but this wasn’t my cup of tea at all.

2 stars

Dan Skip Allen