La nana

Viewed April 26, 2017.

A well made character piece about pride and power struggles, but also about how your job can quite literally become you (Raquel hasn't had kids and so treats her employer's kids almost like she would her own) and also about this strange character who is insecure and stubborn, on a road to nowhere and slowly breaking down. Tonally it is very weird shifting styles significantly at least twice, though it works surprisingly well.

This bizarre film starts like an observational documentary about an unglamorous domestic servant, turns into a hilarious black comedy as she is revealed to be an impish trickster, and finishes as a poignant but uplifting drama as we finally see the soft side of her which only wants to be loved. It's a brilliantly shot and acted film, and the evolution of the story is totally refreshing and out of left field. One of 2009's few masterpieces.

Very Good. After living in the cozy monotony of her employers' house for 23 years, a maid hits breakdown. This is a great character-study of a person on the road to nowhere. The lead actress gives an amazing praise-worthy performance as the neurotic, strung-up housemaid. Very Highly Recommended.

Brilliant, really funny. It sticked to reality, it felt like a mockumentary with sparks of black humor. I couln't stop laghing when she kept closing the door to the other maids hahaha.

The setup might lure you into expecting a familiarly grim escalating microcosm of class conflict, but The Maid manages some surprising and ultimately pleasing shifts in perspective. Catalina Saavedra anchors the film with a versatile and deep performance as Raquel, the worn-out maid who's staked her whole identity on her service to an upper-class family home.

Silva's handheld camera captures the inner workings of an upper-class family, and the nanny's point of view gives a whole new perspective to the issue. We only leave the house twice, and it is clear that the essence of the chilean social structure can be found right here. Here, where the poor meet the rich in an odd marriage bound by money, but eventually sealed with just a hint of love.

Inside the small world of a long-time live-in domestic in middle-class Chile, unable any longer to keep up with her chores but unable to abide an assistant (i.e., a rival). A portrait of dark psychology in a milky image, matter-of-factly presented by Silva, stolidly, solidly acted by Saavedra.