The Housemaid Review
By David Kempler
She does more than floors and windows
Im Sang-soo's "The Housemaid" - based on the film by Kim Ki-young - is elegant, classy, beautifully shot, but ultimately disappointing fare. At times sexual and mysterious, even bordering on the supernatural, "The Housemaid" oozes sensuality and coldness at the same time. The problem is that the plot never quite catches up to the imagery.
The house in which it all unfolds is an immaculate architectural specimen that is perfectly set up to accommodate all sorts of interesting mischief, and it certainly does contain a plethora of oddities and odd personalities, but it never blends together, playing rather as jumping from one setting to another.
Its onset, which takes place in an urban, working-class world, shows us our first glimpse of Eun-yi (
Jeon Do-yeon), who abandons her position in a restaurant to take employment with a very well-to-do family. Eun-yi's sweet and easygoing demeanor stands in stark contrast to the rich and proper lives of her new employers. The master of the house, Hoon (Lee Jung-jae) is a big-shot businessman who returns home from work every day and is serviced by a variety of females (not sexually). He is leading a clear life of privilege. His pretty and pregnant wife, Hae-ra (Seo Woo), is a focal point, but there are females of various social strata everywhere, and each one has very definite desires.
Hoon and Eun-yi ended up sharing passion and of course this sets off the expected ripples throughout the house. While he is clearly the aggressor, she is not quite pushing him away all that strongly either. Their relationship is a threat to all of the other females in attendance, for different reasons. Everyone feels in possession of their particular role and no one is looking to lose their role.
Everything is pretty much run-of-the-mill, even if it is supposed to feel edgy. Until the final scenes. These last scenes seem almost inappropriate to all that has preceded it, trying desperately to shock and confuse us. By this point we are so confused that it is difficult to assign a genre to "The Housemaid". Perhaps the director was trying to avoid being neatly slipped into a slot to be evaluated, but by so avoiding it, he has created a feeling of confusion about what we have just witnessed. It's a shame, because somewhere in all of this is a story, tension, good directing and writing, but it ends up as watered-down soup in a low-class diner, and that is ultimately not enough.
