Keeping an Eye on "The Maid"

It always happens. Every year when I think I'm done with all the notable films of the previous year, I stumble over a title that demands recognition. This time it's "The Maid," a Chilean film which would have easily made my shortlist if I'd seen it earlier. I actually passed it over a few times, assuming from the plot synopsis and the cover image of the title character glaring out at the viewer that it was a pulpy horror film about a killer domestic. This isn't the case, but one of the strengths of "The Maid" is that there's enough ambiguity in the first half of the film, that it could have been. Knowing less is more, so I'm reluctant to say much about the plot for fear of spoiling it.

Catalina Saavedra stars as Raquel, the maid of a wealthy household with four children. In the first scene we see the family celebrating Raquel's birthday, but she's so shy and embarrassed, she has to be coaxed to leave the kitchen and join the festivities. We learn that Raquel has been with the family for over twenty years, helped to raise the teenage children, and barely has any contact with her own relations. Raquel's life as a maid is all she knows, and she thinks of the family as her own. She reacts negatively when Pilar (Claudia Celedón), the mother, suggests hiring additional help to ease Raquel's workload. Unfortunately, stress and strain take their toll and Raquel collapses one day. During her recuperation, Pilar hires Camila (Andrea García-Huidobro), a girl from Peru who Raquel immediately sees as a threat. Two other maids, Sonia (Anita Reeves) and Lucy (Mariana Loyola), also play important roles in the story, which I leave for the viewer to discover.

I can't say enough about Catalina Saavedra's performance. Raquel is a fascinating character. She seems like a timid figure at first, but reveals vast reservoirs of stubborn willfulness when provoked that can border on frightening. Her manner with Camila is hostile and bullying, but when she takes action, it's rarely in any straightforward manner. Rather, she prefers passive-aggressive tactics like redoing chores that she feels have been done incorrectly, and locking Camila out of the house and then refusing to answer the door. For much of the film her face is stony and expressionless, and we can only guess what she's thinking as she commits her sabotage. When confronted, she only stares blankly at her accusers, but tension radiates from every inch of her frame. Occasionally there are cracks in the facade, brief moments when we can see her fear and frustration. Surely this is a woman on the brink of doing something truly terrible.

What makes "The Maid" such a great watch is the uncertainty of how far Raquel is going to go in order to keep outsiders from the household. Director Sebastián Silva gives the audience no obvious cues for what to expect, and I'm not even sure what genre to classify the film as. There are clearly elements of thriller, social drama, but it could fall into a few other categories as well. The cinematography is starkly realistic, free of artifice and obvious staging. There isn't much of a soundtrack to underline any feelings of unease about the situation. Raquel's behaves reprehensibly toward Camila and others, but she's not especially malicious, and for a good hour of the film I wasn't sure whether we were meant to be rooting for her or not. At one point Pilar argues with her daughter and mother about whether Raquel ought to be fired for her transgressions, putting many different emotions and sympathies into conflict.

There's a clear turning point about two-thirds of the way through the film when Raquel's stoicism finally gives way, and we see an outpouring of genuine feeling. And then it happens again, in a very different way, one of the most unexpected and thrilling shocks I've had from a film all year. "The Maid" has a lot of rough edges, and some of the emotional manipulation gets too blatant, but it's a very rewarding watch with a great payoff. South American film is one of those areas that I have almost no familiarity with, and I can't even think of another Chilean film I could name. So it's great to see titles like this finding their way to greater worldwide visibility and acclaim. I'll be keeping an eye out for the work of Sebastián Silva and especially Cataline Saavedra in the future.