It’s the unassuming low budget films that capture the attention of judges and critics among the slew of $100 million competitors intent on focusing on cutting edge special effects. The dimly lit fogginess, comparable to shots from a high definition home camcorder, and the apparent absence of music in “The Maid,” a Chilean film and 2009 Sundance Film Fest World Cinema Jury Prize for Drama winner, can be a tedious hour and half for the average action junkie. However, take it in good measure as an attempt to root out the mindless adrenaline driven audiences whose definition of an award-worthy movie for its plot is “Transformers.”
The sinking feeling of being replaced is undeniably hard to swallow for a 41-year-old in-house career maid with 20 years of commitment to one family. The replacement is prompted by the middle aged woman’s body breaking down from day-to-day laborious chores spanning from early morning and into the night. The film, by director Sebastian Silva (“Nonna’s Trip”), is a portrait of what a woman will do to retain her career, but more so her livelihood as a member of this nuclear family.
Raquel’s (Catalina Saavedra, “The Dancer and the Thief”) misguided thoughts of replacement upon her fatigue and illness instigates a slew of attacks upon new maid after new maid. It’s a tough and unfair world out there and no one can blame a career woman whose virginity remains intact. The stuffed animals lined up along the grown woman’s bed and a single photo album to remind her of the family she likely left behind provides an indication that her livelihood as a maid stole her identity as an autonomous being with desires.
It’s perplexing to understand where Raquel derives her happiness from, as the director highlights the repetitiveness of her long hours. It isn’t until she is confronted by one of the disgruntled new maids berating the children as “ingrates,” that Raquel states, “I am happy. I love them and they love me.” The feeling of belonging from having raised the children since their birth and the relationship with the family members exacerbates her anxiety that despite, her position within the family, she can easily be replaced ? after all, she is merely a paid employee.
It’s difficult to pity a maid whose happiness lies in a life other than her own. It’s doubly difficult to pity a maid whose efforts to drive out new maids entail locking the maids out of the house, catfights and hindering a new maid’s showers with disinfectant. In due part, Chilean actress Catalina Saavedra’s performance as Raquel provides a believable maid, especially when compared to other “maids” like Jennifer Lopez’s role in “Maid in Manhattan.” But then again, when has Jennifer Lopez not been nominated for a Razzie? Catalina’s face remains expressionless, her hair is unkempt and her facade reserved among the family members, yet she effortlessly manipulates Raquel into a something of an antagonist, bent on reclaiming this family as her own.
The film forces audiences to focus on content and its text through watching the blossoming of an identity after 20 years of service. It’s not until the entrance of a third maid, and one that Raquel calls friend, that Raquel periodically exits the box that is this family’s home. Whether “The Maid” borrows from Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go,” remains to be seen in an interview, but they both force the thought: How much should you be willing to give up of yourself? It seems that according to “The Maid,” service and devotion is meaningless without an identity.
4 stars out of 5.
