The Maid (2014)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The Maid is a disappointing story about a young spoiled alcoholic teenager Jack (Ryan Cerenko) who comes home to his father, falls in love with the maid, Maria (Claire Kahane) and through this relationship somehow mends his broken past. It is played out through sappy conversations, and unrealistic scenarios with a fixation on Jack somehow getting the "motherly" love he never got through Maria, who is nothing but a providing caricature of a woman. Jack is angry, spoiled, whiny, and somehow Maria just dotes on him. The fantasy continues, she nurses him the way he would as a baby, and even when they go out on a date later, he lies with his head in her lap, a constant reminder of his lack of masculinity and desire to be "babied". It's really a pathetic fantasy evoked in a male-centric universe as he denies affections from Becky (Olivia Jewson) a female peer that throws herself shamelessly at him, even going as far to offer him birthday sex, to obtain the affections of Maria. The Maid is a waste of time. While most son/older women films run typically a darker side, The Maid remains just steeped in male-oriented dream of what could have been, with little point to be made. Poor film, as some of these other reviews has mentioned, an artificially inflated IMDb score.

A good story but unfortunately spoiled by a terrible script and really bad acting. The actors are unfortunately not very believable and the teenager looked more like a 30 year old.Kahane's French accent was not very believable ad unfortunately it is hard also to believe why a nice young girl would fall in love with a spoiled brat who keeps on insulting her. The camera work was OK at some points and rather poor during some scenes.The dad was a little bit more believable.The story itself could have been made into a better film

Miss Kahane is wonderful, the rest of the actors adequate. Cinematography and production values are good. Where this film suffers, IMO, is the writing. This seems a curious complaint to have to note when the writer is also the director. It seems to me that some of the dialog is repetitious and doesn't move the story along. The other problem for me is the loose ends left hanging which give the impression a sequel is intended. On the whole, it is a very secular story about forgiveness and redemption of a sort with which some viewers might not be comfortable. That's about all that needs to be said without getting into spoiler territory. Let's go back to the plot. Jack, a very unpleasant alcoholic whose mother died when he was born, has been living with a maternal uncle in the States since his step-mother spilled the beans a decade or so earlier and let him know she was not his natural mother. Since then, his father has divorced and we never meet step-mother or half-brother. Jack has been goaded by his uncle into going to the UK to spend his 18th birthday with his father who lives alone but has a very attractive French woman, Maria, who comes in days to cook and clean for him. Becky, a local girl makes a play for Jack, but he rejects her to pursue Maria whom he also treats shabbily. At the end, we wonder if Maria really wanted Jack or used him for a purpose of her own.

This is a classic story driven movie where the interaction of the actors is complimented by the stunning cinematography from Paul Emmanuel. This moving piece has the audiences trapped in the emotionally charged relationship of Jack and Maria and how they slowly unravel their troubled pasts. Having a great story isn't enough if the actors can't portray the characters and the delicate interactions between them. Both leads had great chemistry and watching them is like two dancers constantly intertwining and separating with graceful movements. The locations and scenery is beautiful; the English countryside and a perfect place for love to blossom.