The Housemaid

If an above-average movie is released during these early months of the year, chances are that it's either a foreign film or a huge American surprise. THE HOUSEMAID happens to be the former, although there's definitely an element of surprise involved here, too, because what looks like a steamy, soft-core porn-ish foreign film (just look at the poster) turns out to be an uncommonly interesting exploration of social classes and of the manipulation by those who are economically powerful over those who are more disadvantaged. At one point during THE HOUSEMAID, one character says of another "He's had everything he's ever wanted. He doesn't even know what the concept of NOT being able to get something is." THE HOUSEMAID explores that cold and detached mindset of upper-class people who cold-heartedly think anything can be solved with money, but that exploration is done through the eyes of an outsider who is completely unfamiliar (and shocked) by this new world she has suddenly fallen into.

Eun-yi (Do-yeon Jeon) has a low-paying job at a restaurant, but she manages to get hired as a nanny by an extremely wealthy family of three that is soon to be a family of five. Eun-yi has been hired to care for the one kid in the house, Nami (Seo Hyeon-Ahn), but the mother is currently pregnant with twins, which means that Eun-yi will eventually have her hands even more full. On the first day that Eun-yi meets Nami and is gearing up to start looking after her, we can tell that Eun-yi is perfect for the job, as she's super playful and kind (like most kids, Nami is initially hesitant but eventually relents and starts to care a lot for Eun-yi). The mom is very pleased with Eun-yi, who is also great at taking care of her in her pregnant state and seems to look forward to the idea of having two additional kids to take care of.

But all of a sudden, a drastic change occurs in Eun-yi's work functions, when the father of the house takes a physical interest in her. An early scene tells us that the mother's pregnancy has affected the couple's sex life, which is perhaps a way to explain why he does it, but that doesn't take away from how shocking it is that Eun-yi is used in the way that she is. You see, as opposed to most other movies, this isn't a situation in which the man of the family ends up having feelings for the maid and choosing to be with her instead. There's no doubt, right from the beginning, that this is a strictly carnal thing, and that Eun-yi's paycheck is partly compensating her for the, um, services she's providing him. The sex scenes never make you feel like you're watching one of those gratuitous foreign films in which sex is used as an excuse to give off a deceptively arty and sophisticated air, but the scenes are certainly heavy on eroticism and even pretty graphic dialogue at one point. When all hell breaks loose and a mother-in-law figure enters the proceedings, things get delightfully intense and interesting.

THE HOUSEMAID has no interest in concealing its thesis that power does much more than just corrupting. It gives the person the idea that they can simply do anything, and that the people in front of him/her are mere pawns that have to be moved in whatever direction will most benefit them. When one of the powerful people in the film attempts to commit a murder at one point and fails at it, the person's frustration is more along the lines of the frustration you have when you try to land a piece of crumpled paper in the trash can and you miss - nothing more serious than that.

During the last half hour or so of THE HOUSEMAID, the cattiness is a pure treat, although there are times at which the dialogue feels more soap-operatic than it should (but since I was reading subtitles, I'm giving the movie the benefit of the doubt and not pointing this out as too much of a big problem). Any misses in the dialogue, though, are off-set by how terrific and wonderfully unpredictable the film's final moments are. We expect a straight-up revenge sequence in which all the "bad guys" get what they deserve, but that's extremely far from what we actually get. One critic commented that Eun-yi's ultimate fate seems like straight out of a David Lynch film. I can't say I disagree - and that's a good thing. With the dross of uninspired movies that get dumped into multiplexes during these initial months of the year, arthouse movie theaters are sometimes the only place where you have a shot at finding something very good so early on in the year, and THE HOUSEMAID is great evidence of that.

7/10