Chilean movies don't come around very often, but with Catalina Saavedra in the title role, "The Maid" is a very strong, often funny film that has universal application. Raquel, frumpy, virginal and not at all pretty, with unkempt hair and a slouch in her walk and her attitude, has worked for a wealthy family some 20 years. She's enough of a family member that they have a party for her birthday, though the gifts are of the hand-me-down variety.
Raquel takes care of the family and its house, cleaning and doing laundry and dishes, cooking and minding four children whose adolescence is setting in, to the point where she is washing sheets almost daily for the boy and trying to keep some sort of control over a group of strong-minded girls.
There are parents, though Dad (Alejandro Guic) does nothing but play golf and build model sailing ships while Mom (Claudia Celedon) has lunch with friends and visits with her mother.
But Saavedra is more territorial than a lioness, and when she has health problems and the family hires a helper, Raquel makes her life miserable and manages to avoid suspicion. We go through several maids, starting with the meek Mercedes (Mercedes Villanueva) and on to the fiery Sonia (Anita Reeves), literally driven up the walls by Raquel, and finally to Lucy (Mariana Loyola), who is not intimidated by Raquel, befriends her and opens what may be a new life for her.
Sebastian Silva directed with a light, impressive touch, and also wrote the screenplay with Pedro Peirano. It's a charming movie.
Opens today at the Tivoli.
–Joe