Breakout film (deservedly so) for Chilean writer/director Sebastián Silva dives straight into a spiral of emotional and mental decline for Raquel (Catalina Saavedra), the overwhelmed housemaid to a rich/handsome family of seven. Dutifully celebrating her forty-first birthday & twenty years of service, it soon becomes impossible to ignore escalating friction on the job, especially with the two older girls. Truth is, Raquel has no life outside her ‘work family,’ and is only just hanging on, ineffectively self-medicating against headaches & dizziness. The head of the house looks the other way (or sneaks off for a round of golf) while the wife tries to make things work with offers of help, including assistants (one young & docile/one an old tartar), each viewed by Raquel as threats she childishly needs to vanquish. But just when you expect the film to devolve into some sort of violence or tragedy, Silva believably shifts gears in the most thoughtful way imaginable after physical collapse brings in a third-time’s-the-charm assistant in the form of a wonderfully centered woman from the countryside (Mariana Loyola) who gives Raquel something she’s never experienced before: friendship. The third act here is almost breathtakingly original, even wise; so too the emotionally satisfying epilogue. Serious and very entertaining, a rare talent is born.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The lack of villains here as noticeable as in those very early Jonathan Demme films, before he began keeping score. It didn’t last long for Demme (two films!); here’s hoping Silva continues to honor Jean Renoir’s dictum that everyone has their reasons.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Among many gifts, Silva shows a rare knack in the use of non-exploitative casual nudity. Usually for narrative or character building, but also for generating big honest laughs. It’s stopping me from sticking a Family Friendly label on this; don’t let it stop you.
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