New DVD: The Maid

June 24, 2010 in Film | Permalink

Catalina Saavedra, who's worked in film, soaps and sitcoms in Chile, is perfect in the lead role.

Some people don’t get enough of the things they need to live well and respond by clinging to the things that are driving them into the ground. After all, without their misery they’d have nothing. Such a person is Raquel (Catalina Saavedra), a blank-faced and bitter Chilean maid at the heart of Sebastian Silva’s uncommonly generous blend of dark comedy and soulful drama.

Raquel has served the same family for 23 years. Moodily towing around vacuum cleaners and laundry bags, she has the body language of someone waiting for the worst news possible. It’s not that she resents the work; in fact she loves it. Nor is the family unkind to her. She’s treated well and is almost one of the family. It’s that “almost” that’s eating at her.

Raquel is so insecure about her place in the home that she sabotages one attempt after another by her bosses to hire some additional help, even though the housework in the large home is driving her to nervous exhaustion. They see a second maid as someone who can ease the burden; Raquel sees a potential replacement. Things continue apace until Raquel has no choice but to accept a helper named Lucy (Mariana Loyola) into the fold, and the arrangement has a surprising effect on Raquel and the film’s direction.

Silva’s movie has no heavy-handed concern for the politics of class. He’s not making a movie about symbols but about people. The result is a rich work that realizes that each loss in life is laced with riches if we only have the will and wisdom to seek them out. (Available from Netflix and other outlets.)

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