LOS ANGELES, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The Housemaid, in theaters Friday, is a sexy thriller with a wink to the genre but still delivers the goods. Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried lead this battle of wills and devious games.
Millie (Sweeney) applies for a live-in maid position with Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried). It seems too good to be true, so Millie thinks she'll never get it, but Nina calls back and very soon reveals it was not only too good to be true, but toxic by any measure.
Nina behaves erratically. She forgets assignments she's given Millie and then blames her for doing them. Nina even sets Millie up with panicked requests that conflict with plans Nina already made.
Most people in the audience will relate to having a toxic boss like this. The unspoken responsibility of many jobs is to take the blame for the boss's whims or anticipate needs the boss doesn't even know they have yet.
The Housemaid heightens that dynamic to abusive degrees. Millie can't leave because she's on parole and needs to show steady employment as a condition of release, but it's also easy to imagine a desperate person in this economy putting up with it.
