| I think it’s impossible not to compare The Housemaid to A Simple Favor. Two stylish, twisty thrillers based on popular novels, directed by Paul Feig, starring two popular actresses, and an innocent-looking husband caught in the middle, both premiering to positive critical reaction. And yet The Housemaid has done seriously good box office numbers despite being released in a post-covid theatrical environment, already beating the 2018 flick by over $30M, and possibly doubling it when all is said and done. | | 2025
Directed by: Paul Feig
Screenplay by: Rebecca Sonnenshine
Based on the novel by Freida McFadden
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Sydney Sweeney, Brendan Sklenar
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Why? And no, I don’t think the answer is that Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney are more popular now than Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick were seven years ago, at least not significantly so. On the surface, the simple answer is because The Housemaid’s novel by Freida McFadden was a lot more popular, having spent weeks on the New York Times bestseller, so it has a much bigger built-in audience. But the more complicated answer is because it’s better. And I liked A Simple Favor, most critics and audiences did.
The Housemaid is a bit more grounded, kind of. The twists, although extreme, come out of reality more than the telenovela twists in A Simple Favor did. I am seeing The Housemaid weeks late (I spend my Christmas holidays in a small town with no theater), and I was very concerned that it would have been spoiled to me before I got to see it. Surprisingly, that has not happened, and in retrospect I think I can understand why people haven’t been blasting the ending all over social media which people tend to do for most thrillers.
There is one big, main twist (unlike A Simple Favor which had a lot of them) and it develops in a very interesting manner, so it’s not just one big “gotcha” moment, but rather a big twist with whole bunch of little bread crumbs along the way to help the audience to get there. Thankfully, for whatever reason, I don’t think internet trolls like spoiling that type of twist.
As you can probably tell, I don’t want to reveal a thing in this review. It’s the type of movie best watched with as little information as possible. There is more going on than meets the eye with all three of the main characters: Amanda Seyfried’s rich housewife Nina, Brendan Sklenar’s come-from-money, dutiful husband Andrew, and Sydney Sweeney’s broke housemaid who-desperately-needs-a-job Millie.
At times The Housemaid can move a little slow. There really is just one main misdirection, so if you’re expecting twist after twist, the movie can seem very uneventful. As we approach the ending, it also goes big, very big, like outside of reality big which I’m usually not a fan of, but the earlier reveal and the ultimate ending is very satisfying, so it’s easier to just say, yeah it’s a good movie, even if I am unlikely to watch it again.
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