La Camarista

For over an hour and a half, I watched the daily routine of a chambermaid at a posh Mexico City hotel, and I wasn't the bit bored. In writer-director Lila Aviles's The Chambermaid, Eve (Gabriela Cartol) experiences with us through the magic of the camera a life as a maid in a hotel with small events that take her through aspiration, eroticism, and disappointment.

Aviles's camera moves very little as it lets Cartol's expressive face tell us about the highs and lows of a blue-collar mom working for her baby and her own social elevation. Not only is she likeable, but she is admirable for the way she does her very best at housekeeping and improving her lot in life with evening school.

Each fold of a sheet or electroshock titillation from co-worker Minitoy (Teresa Sanchez) lets us in to her yearnings and her escapes. When we watch her perform an erotic act for a window washer admirer, we see a 24-year old woman with passions that go beyond her staid working life. Her emergence into an extrovert in her evening class is, like her, slow but sure as she grows into independence and extroversion.

What matters here is that an unexemplary life has yearnings and romance that are hidden to everyone but the camera, revealing a woman of many layers and good intentions, buffeted by fate and her own kindnesses from her desires and ambitions. As in Alfonse Cuaron's Roma, the servant has the insight, but unlike Roma, The Chambermaid is bereft of nostalgia and dominated by the quotidian forces that define modern life, rich or poor.

Here is a winning effort from a first-time filmmaker and a memorable slice of life sure to inform how we see housekeeping in whatever hotel we visit, be it Mexico City, London, or any other great city that hides the lives of the working poor.

I rather liked this film. Nothing happens in it that could be said to constitute a plot in the classical sense, but that is the point. The protagonist leads a desultory life, working only to survive and lacking any real means for freeing herself from the daily grind. Her relationships to her co-workers and the people whom she serves are temporary and devoid of any lasting significance. In some ways, her situation reflects that of many workers at every stratum of society. The difference is that she does not have very many options available and will probably continue to clean rooms until the day she dies.

"The Chambermaid" is a poor man's answer to Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma."

Where "Roma" painted on a huge canvas, juxtaposing the isolation of the main character's existence amidst the swirling carnival of life happening around her, the world as we know it might as well not exist at all in "The Chambermaid." Or rather, the world is reduced to the hushed hallways, empty rooms, and service areas of a luxury hotel. That's where Eve works and never seems to leave. Her days are comprised of cleaning and taking care of other people's needs while taking care of none of her own. We see her half-heartedly pursuing classes in order to earn her GED, and we know she has a child she adores but only because we see her on the phone checking in with the person taking care of him. She doesn't seem to have any kind of dating life to speak of, though because of a couple of scenes we know she's a sexual being. Her job is making her sick, but she pushes through the moments when she feels most unwell.

"The Chambermaid" is a sobering film, and it's not that much fun to sit through. But it's a very well made film, and there's something quietly mesmerizing about watching one of the nameless, faceless millions that the world is full of and who we interact with every day without really seeing slowly evolve into a full-bodied character with a rich interior life before our eyes. That this happens through long static shots and little dialogue makes the feat even more impressive. Kudos have to go to Gabriela Cartol, the actress who plays Eve and is in virtually every frame of the film. This is the kind of performance that will never garner any wide recognition, but it's one that should.

The only time we see Eve outside the walls of the hotel is in the film's very last shot. But even then, though we're relieved to see her finally interacting with the larger world, we have to ask ourselves if there's any place in it for her.

Grade: A

A maid in a Mexico City hotel hopes to move up the ladder.

This is a well made, engrossing film about what happens behind the scenes and when you are not in your hotel room. The main character named Eve is a 24 year old single mother who wants to get her GED and get a better paying job in the hotel. There are several interesting shots of her looking very small among the mounds of linen as she cleans rooms, there is an astounding shot of her on the roof as well. She has some interesting and bizarre encounters with guests and co workers. This is no Hollywood fairy tale like Jennifer Lopez in "Maid In Manhattan". This is a realistic view into a snapshot of life not many get to see. Although it is a fictional scripted movie it reminded me of the great documentaries by Frederick Wiseman. I always felt that seeing normal everyday people going about their day are fascinating, and it held my interest the whole time. I hope more people will seek this out, especially if you like your films real and quietly effective that avoids all Hollywood cliches.

I genuinely felt bad for the maid in this film, but I feel even more bad for the fact that I wasted an hour and forty minutes watching an unfocused and unguided film that all could have been trimmed down to a twenty minute short film. The Chambermaid could basically be summed up like this: woman struggles in her job as a hotel maid, and while attempting to get her GED, she continuously suffers from people overlooking her and being an outcast in society. Yes, that sounds all fine and dandy, but again, these freaking indie films just love showing main characters walking around for what seems like hours.

The main character cleans. Then she walks down the hall. She stares at random objects. She cleans some blankets. She goes to GED classes. She speaks one sentence. Repeat. It gets extremely boring and repetitive.

I will say that I was enlightened with getting an insight into the struggles of what Mexican maids have to go through, especially in their struggle to rank up in their crummy job, but that does not make this film good. The main character was horribly developed and literally had no character, so how am I supposed to really care? I sympathize with maids, but I do not sympathize with her.

All in all, this was a boring film that really needs a trim of about an hour. Get rid of GED crap. Get rid of phone calls to home. Get rid of boring shots of her cleaning for half of the runtime, and just trim it to like a quarter. Maybe focus more on the people, like the young woman with the child, who gave a bit of attention to our main character.

Watch the movie if you like to watch people clean or if you like watching people walk around while looking sad.