The Maid (2009)

This is the true great movie of the year. Intimate,funny and unpredictable. When I started watching the film I thought that I knew how it would end( I always know), either there was going to be some killings or they were going to show us the true colors of the "capitalist employers". I was completely wrong . I kept peeping into the lives of this upper middle class Chilean family and their very awkward maid utterly fascinated by everything and enjoying every minute. It looks like the movie was filmed with a hand held camera which combine with the very good acting it makes you believe that you are not watching a movie but a story from real life.

Fmovies: This was one of the movies we saw at Sundance 2009. We found it to be an interesting portrayal of the relationship between a live-in maid and "her" family. The family portrayed was from Chile, and reflected the writer/director's actual family.

The maid shown in this film truly runs the household and has a strange power over the family. She knows what happens to everyone and how to sabotage them if need be. She has a love/hate relationship with most members of the family, some of it closer to hate more often than not. She also will not allow another maid to share "her" household, until she meets a certain someone. Since this is a realistic portrayal of Chilean family life, we found it fascinating to watch. Good job to all of the actors!

As a child growing up with a parent in the Domestic Service Industry, this movie was very touching and comical at the same time. So much of what happens when the family is not around and the house staff dynamics are well portrayed here. The difference is the cultural nuances that made this film so great. Some of subjects areas caught on film would never really be seen in North America Cinema.

The family dynamics portrayed in the film is also very interesting. The movie has some documentary style camera angles but it is very much a look in at one persons life.

I recommend this movie.

The Maid fmovies. La Nana (2009), shown in the U.S. as "The Maid," was written and directed by Sebastián Silva. This film recounts the life, and plight, of a maid in a well-to-do Chilean family. Catalina Saavedra portrays Raquel, who has worked for the same family for 23 years. She lives in their home, and knows their habits, secrets, and idiosyncrasies.

The problem is that Raquel has no life outside of the family, and nothing much to show for these years of devoted service. It's true that everyone considers her "one of the family," but she really isn't. When her behavior becomes somewhat erratic, the family has to cope with the problem.

To their credit, they don't consider firing Raquel, but their solution is to hire another maid. Raquel perceives this as a threat to her position and identity. Her efforts to force the new maids to leave are treated as comedy, and they are humorous, but beneath the humor is the sad fact that if Raquel loses her central position within the household, she loses her the only thing of value that she has.

Catalina Saavedra is outstanding as Raquel. In fact, it would be hard to imagine another actor in the role. You accept her as La Nana, and you have to remind yourself that this is a work of fiction, not a documentary about domestic service in Chile.

The film is worth seeking out, although the ending is not really satisfying. Despite the weak ending, it's a movie made with skill and obvious respect for the protagonist. It was shown in the Dryden Theatre, Rochester, as part of the excellent Rochester Labor Film Series. It may be hard to find in a theater, and will work well on a small screen. See it!

I just saw this at the Sydney Film Festival and enjoyed it very much. An up close and personal drama with nice comic moments about a live in housekeeper who works for wealthy family in Santiago. Catalina Saavedra in the lead role delivers a very strong performance as the shy and emotionally distant maid who literally doesn't have a life besides her role within the house.

There are some really fine scenes throughout this film as we slowly get to know the family and obviously Raquel the maid. I liked the fact that the family did not treat her like dirt and knew her value to the household.

A small character driven film with a warm heart and realistic touches. It was also nice to see the Director and Lead Actress (Sebastian Silva and Catalina Saavedra) live after the screening for Q & A's with the appreciative audience.

The Maid (2009)

In some ways this film is extraordinary. It's small, limited in its setting, and it has a slightly predictable inevitability. But it is so seeringly well acted and filmed with an honest small budget honesty, it's hard not to appreciate. It also deals with a huge issue in many countries--the use of household help, often now from other, poorer countries, and the ironies and sadness that goes with this class structure.

Catalina Saavedra is "the maid" in this, and like the leading role in the even more astonishing "The Hedgehog" we get inside this person's modest and seemingly invisible persona to really get them, or part of them, for a brief spell. It's moving--it made me cry--and revealing. It's not like we don't know that live-in maids lead an unfair, often unhappy life (which they disguise from their employers). But we aren't often faced with it so plainly.

This also is revealing about the standard of living in Chile, which is one of the two or three South American countries fully above the "third world" status you might think at first. The fact it did so well in the United States (earning half a million dollars) is not because it was a glimpse of a foreign impoverished country, but because it resembled so well the situation in American households. Those with maids.

See this? Yes, certainly. It has a simple cinema-verite style, not quite home movies but shot almost entirely inside the house in a shaky camera. The plot might not be enough for some viewers--after awhile it is what it is without a lot of complications. Or at least not complications we haven't seen before. What carries it is the sincerity of the performances, especially Saavedra's.