Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
MOVIE REVIEW
The Maid (La Nana)
House Calls And Marriages Not “Maid” In Heaven
Catalina Saavedra as Raquel in Sebastian Silva's "The
Maid" (La Nana), which opened in San Francisco today.
Elephant Eye Films
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
Friday, November 13, 2009
Sebastián Silva directs an initially unassuming film with “The Maid” (La Nana),
which through its protagonist Raquel (well-acted by Catalina Saavedra) shows its
hand, gradually unfurling into an unsettling experience.
For all the chills and thrills provided by recent films like
"Paranormal
Activity", "The Maid" is more a horror film than
the genteel sitcom-type movie its surface shows. Set in Chile, the film
follows the lonely and sad life of Raquel (Ms. Saavedra), a 40-something
houseworker who has toiled away for 23 years at an upper-middle class family's
home and has little to show for it other than occasional dizzy spells and
migraine headaches.
Raquel is appreciated but with all the benign neglect and condescension that an
emotionally truncated and gleefully elitist household can muster. Shunted
almost into obscurity on her birthday, Raquel often gets the Rodney Dangerfield
treatment. Her most ardent defender is the family's flighty matriarch
Pilar Valdez (Claudia Celedon), an apologist for any bizarre behavior Raquel
exhibits. Let's face it, Raquel has her bad days, as do we all, and those
bad days pile up when several new maids arrive to alleviate some of the heavy
burdens of housecleaning that affect Raquel, who has a barely tangible
relationship with her own family whom we never see.
And it's what we don't see or what is implied that makes this quitely triumphant
film as gripping as ever. Mr. Silva, who wrote the screenplay with Pedro
Peirano, avoids making his film about a family who is changed as a result of
Raquel's presence. "The Maid" shines because it is a well-layered
character study of a woman who has literally watched life pass her by and waits
for it to be over. Mostly eschewing farce, "The Maid", which opened today
in San Francisco at the
Embarcadero Center Cinema, also resists calls
for pity or outrage, even as an audience's patience is tried with Raquel.
"The Maid" may be a statement about the family that has kept a depressed woman
as a servant in their home for so long. With secrets of a household
probably far more dysfunctional than Raquel ever could be, how can the Valdez
family possibly be content and happy with themselves? (Imagine if there
was a maid who could be hired to clean the souls of the Valdez clan.)
With that said, Mr. Silva ups the comedy ante of "The Maid' even as the
situations become more alarming than amusing. His cameras capture the sad,
solitary silences of Raquel, who as played by Ms. Saavedra makes her character
most powerful in her quiet, minimalist moments and gestures. Isolated,
putting on the same too-small maid uniform each day, Raquel says hardly anything
for much of this tense and funny film, but there's proof in the pudding: that
actions speak much louder and more profoundly than words.
With: Alejandro Goic, Andrea Garcia-Huidobro, Mariana Loyola, Agustín Silva,
Darok Orellana, Sebastián La Rivera, Mercedes Villanueva, Anita Reeves and
Delfina Guzman.
“The Maid” (La Nana) is not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.
The film’s running time
is one hour and 35 minutes. In Spanish language with English language
subtitles.
Read more movie reviews and stories from Omar
here.
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