Synopsis
Raquel has been the live-in housekeeper for a kind, reasonably wealthy family for half her life, and the joyless repetition of the job has begun to take its toll. Increasingly dependent on painkillers, Raquel resorts to pranks and childish avoidance to antagonize the family’s college-age daughter and a procession of new servants, all in the hopes of protecting her precarious power within the home. Her antics successfully push everyone away, until new maid Lucy actually pushes back.
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Cast
- Catalina SaavedraRaquel
- Claudia CeledónPilar
- Andrea García-HuidobroCamila
- Mariana LoyolaLucy
- Alejandro GoicMundo
- Delfina GuzmánGrandma
- Anita ReevesSonia
- Luis DubóEric
- Agustín SilvaLucas
- Juan Pablo LarenasRodrigo
Recommendations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
Raquel's devotion to her employer is barbed with hatred, need, and an insecurity she manifests through constant tiny acts of sabotage that would be funny if they weren't also so chilling -- bordering on psychotic. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
This is strikingly talented cinema from a notable international filmmaker. - 90
Variety
Saavedra is riveting as a servant whose unblinking focus on her routine masks a profound loneliness. - 90
Village Voice
In a remarkable performance that won her a special award from the world cinema jury at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Chilean television vet Saavedra goes through one of the most uncanny psychophysical transformations I've ever seen in a movie without the benefit of obvious makeup or other prosthetics. - 85
NPR
In the end what drives the movie is the hip young filmmaker's struggle with himself -- his showman's need to toy with our anxieties threatening to overwhelm his desire to make amends to all the servants he took for granted growing up. - 80
New York Magazine (Vulture)
At its midpoint, the film could go either way: toward "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" psychosis or something more hopeful and humanistic. It’s a testament to Saavedra’s tough performance that even with a happy ending, you wouldn’t want to leave her with your kids. - 80
Time Out
Saavedra, in an incredibly vanity-free performance, never shies away from Raquel’s darkest edges and still forces us to empathize with the frustrations and stunted loneliness of a life lived in servants’ quarters. - 80
The New York Times
It takes Mr. Silva a while to finish his story, but the ending of The Maid is so intelligently handled and so generously and honestly conceived, it proves well worth the wait.
