The Maid

I never feel so quintessentially American as when the topic of "help" comes up. The whole concept of hired live-in help feels wrong to me, at least as a separate class. I'm not even all that comfortable with hiring someone to come in to clean the house.

At least, I think that's American. Maybe it's Western. In any event, it's very me.

And this newish Chilean import La Nana (The Maid) brings up all the uncomfortable-ness and throws it into sharp relief.

Catalina Saavedra plays Raquel, who's been in service to a family for over 20 years, cleaning the house and raising the children. Also, she seems to be increasingly recalcitrant, though we're not entirely positive of this since we don't see any past stuff. Maybe she was always way?

When the story opens, we see the family throwing a birthday party for Raquel, which she doesn't want to attend. But the oldest boy (Lucas) drags her in and she shares in the cake. But the awkwardness is palpable. The father (Mundo) excuses himself to go work (build a model ship), and Raquel barely tastes the cake before deciding she should do the dishes. The mother (Pilar) tries to insist that she not do them now but she points out that she'd only have to do them later.

The catalyst that moves the story along is a condition that causes Raquel to have bad headaches, and to occasionally swoon. Pilar has been toying with the idea of getting help for Raquel, because the house is so big anyway—an idea that Raquel hates—and soon there's a new maid helping out.

Along the way, we discover all the strange family dynamics that Raquel is in the middle of. Though interestingly, most of the strangeness seems to emanate from Raquel herself.

I never really knew how this movie was going to play out. It's supposed to be a "black comedy" but I don't get why, really. It's not a comedy at all, from what I experienced, but a quirky drama. It's got funny parts, most of which stem from this awkward intimacy—the covert ways that Raquel makes her displeasure known and gets her way against the wishes of the rest of the family.

I liked it. It's a bit slow, but it's also curiously upbeat, and you do come to have a strange affection for the character. I'm not sure if there's something uniquely Chilean that makes it resonate particularly for them; I'd just call it an interesting little movie.

The Boy liked it as well, but he didn't think it was very funny and a little slow.