Title: The Maid
Release Date: August 13, 2009
Director: Sebastián Silva
Production Company: Elephant Eye Films
Summary/Review: In this Chilean comedy-drama, Raquel (Catalina Saavedra) has worked as a live-in housekeeper and nanny for a well-to-do family. She gets along well with the eldest son Lucas (Agustín Silva) and the younger boys, but dislikes the teenage daughter Camila (Andrea García-Huidobro). Raquel is beginning to show her age and has fainting spells due to using chlorinated cleaning supplies. Her employer Pilar (Claudia Celedón) decides with the best intentions to hire a second maid to help Raquel, but Raquel is resistant to anyone else working on her turf. She drives away several maids until Lucy (Mariana Loyola) comes along and wins over Raquel with love and friendship.
I wasn’t really sure what kind of movie this was going to be. At first I thought it was going to be a social commentary on the lot of the working class. Then I thought it was an awkward comedy about feuding maids. But the third act won me over when I realized it was about compassion and the need to be accepted. The movie is filmed with hand-held cameras giving it the naturalistic touch that adds to the feel of the everyday-ness of the story.
Rating: ***1/2
Panorama of the Mountains 