‘The Housewife’ Review: Naomi Watts Is Superb in an Initially Riveting, Increasingly Generic Portrait of Deceptive 1960s American Domesticity

Arriving at a time when accountability would appear to be an increasingly scarce commodity, The Housewife, which was handed its world premiere on the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival, shares a lot with last year’s fest entry, Nuremberg, with its themes of complicity and the thorny pursuit of justice.

Set in New York two decades after the end of the Second World War, the first feature by Canadian filmmaker Ben Shirinian with a compelling script by Alyssa Hill, follows a New York Times reporter’s investigation of a war criminal believed to be living a “simple life” in Queens.

The Housewife

The Bottom Line

Watts makes it worth your time.