The Maid (2009)

This interesting portrayal on a 41-year-old woman, who's teetering on the edge of insanity, doesn't have the ending it deserves but just as the film slips away into nothing a great performance from Saavedra saves the day.

Raquel (Saavedra) feels like one of the family, but feeling like one of the family and being one of the family are two different things entirely. Working as a maid for Pilar (Celedón), her husband and five children for the past twenty-three years, Raquel is granted certain liberties in the house: her quirky behaviour and her animosity towards Pilar's teenage daughter Camila (Andrea Garciá-Huidobro) goes unchecked. The 41-year-old maid, however, is feeling the strain lately with headaches and dizzy spells, so Pilar employs a series of maids to help Raquel. She takes this as a personal affront, though, and sets about psychologically torturing her new would-be colleagues...

To say too much about The Maid would certainly ruin it as it's more a character study rather than a story: Silva's portrayal of this unhinged woman remains on the surface – we, like the family, are only privy to her outlandish actions and are never allowed enough information on her background to get a handle on her. Raquel is obviously disturbed but Silva resists the temptation to shoot her in shadow or give her an evil eye; the direction style is a very ordinary, hand-held approach. Frustratingly, Silva leaves a number of elements unexplored. Pilar finds Raquel's photos with Camila scratched out and Raquel hides the family's kitten in a desk drawer: both are dramatic moments and could be a real insight into what makes Raquel tick but Silva just forgets about them and moves on, never to bring them up again. This tactic, unfortunately, lends itself to the third act where The Maid just peters out and fades away, lacking the climax the story/character warrants. Silva likes to take unexpected turns. Just as The Maid looks like it's building to some conclusion, the director stops the film dead and takes it down a different path.

If it wasn't for Saavedra The Maid would have been interesting but ultimately forgettable. A powerful yet understated turn, Saavedra gives Raquel a perpetual uneasiness: she might be all sweetness and light on the outside but there's a wildness in her eyes. She's full of coiled power, ready to spring, but pulls back on it before it explodes. Inhabiting that netherworld is hard to nail but Saavedra is always convincing.