FLORA is the hard- working woman who cleans my apartment every other week. After watching the Chilean film “The Maid,” I realize how lucky I am to have her. In fact, she’s going to get a raise.
Heaven forbid she should turn into someone like Raquel, the psychotic domestic in director-co-writer Sebastian Silva’s dark, dark comedy.
The film opens with the live-in maid receiving a surprise 41st-birthday party from her grateful upper-class Santiago employers — mom, dad and four kids.
Raquel (Catalina Saavedra) has worked more than 20 years for the Valdes family, but she’s starting to fray at the edges. She has mysterious fainting spells and her mental state is, shall we say, fragile.
No surprise then that Raquel flips out when the mistress of the house hires another maid to help relieve the workload.
A threatened Raquel — “It’s my family!” she declares — does little things like locking her helper out of the house and threateningly scrubbing the tub every time her helper showers.
Two women come — and, quickly, go. Which brings us to Lucy (Mariana Loyola), who isn’t bothered by Raquel’s odd behavior, and forms a strange bond with her would-be adversary. (Perhaps Lucy’s a bit loco herself.)
Saavedra’s portrayal of Raquel is on target — it gained her a prize at Sundance (where the film also won).
Silva’s script has the ring of truth, not surprising since he based it on real-life experiences. He even shot most of the scenes in his own family’s house.
You’ll have to excuse me now. I have to wrap a gift for the surprise party I’m throwing for Flora.