The Maid's Room

Can I say first, wow the woman who plays the maid is very beautiful. I read somewhere they were criticized for "demonizing the rich"? No, this shows quite frankly, exactly what rich white people are like, so not sure where that came from. However, they make the maid look like a complete moron, so that kind of made me angry. There is so much with that, I can't begin, but basically, they make her out to look like a complete dumb****. So, like what, immigrants are too stupid to out think the white rich people? There is countless of things that she did in this movie, that would never have been done by a real woman, any woman, other than a ditsy rich white girl, would do. So, I guess that's where they got their inspiration for her character from. With that said, like I said, this movie had potential, but it stops about 10 to 15 minutes in. So, I guess if there is nothing else you can watch, then do so, but this is not a movie you'd seek out to watch, no. Nice try though.

The Maid's Room has got to be one of the most confused thrillers I can remember seeing. It's got an almost nonsensical plot structure. Don't confuse that with "innovative" or "creative" --- no, the script for this film is a complete mess.

Michael Walker seems to be a bright guy with some very interesting ideas. His last film, "Price Check," took a lot of chances and turned the office rom-com genre on its head in the process. I didn't always love what he did with the storyline and characters in "Price Check", but it was logical and provoking, and the characters had depth enough to make intelligent decisions and retain your interest. Oh yeah, casting Parker Posey, an almost unsinkable talent, as his lead didn't hurt either.

Walker tries a similar stunt with the domestic thriller genre. His lead this time is the beguiling Paula Garces, who brings just the right tone to Drina, a young Columbian maid who the Crawfords (Bill Camp and Annabella Sciorra) hire to basically babysit and clean up after their coddled son at their Long Island mansion while they go back to NYC for the summer. Unfortunately, shortly after their departure, the son, Brandon (Phillip Ettinger), gets involved in an accident that appears a bit more serious than he lets on. When Drina finds blood on a sponge Brandon used to clean up, you can imagine the consequences for all involved, witnesses and otherwise.

Or can you? That's the thing about The Maid's Room...things don't exactly go as you'd predict. I'm ordinarily all for these types of out-of-the-box twists, but they fail in this case because the characters who are left holding the bag after this mid-film climax simply aren't worth watching (or well cast). From then on, this film is something of a schizophrenic freakshow, careening in tone from "Night of the Living Dead" territory to "Revenge of the Migrant Workers." What did Walker intend to do here, then? Ah, yes. That's the other big problem. I heard lots of bad press on this movie shortly after it opened mostly because it "demonized the filthy rich" and made them into "impossibly heartless baddies." Ehh, not really. I don't think any of the Crawford's actions (and far worse no doubt) are beyond the qualms of the upper class and those who aspire to their leagues. I didn't even think Bill Camp's constant pompous prattling about "what it takes to succeed" to his son were overblown. But do we really need constant shots of invading ants to hammer home the corruption of these upper crusters? It's lame symbolism, not to mention idiotic (hire an exterminator or buy a jug of vinegar, for god's sake).

The film simply tries overly hard to do all the wrong things. It's not artful or subtle enough to offer anything we don't already know about class conflict, the plight of immigrants, or the corruption of power. I'm sure some directors could pull it off, but they'd need a far more talented cast (apologies to Sciorra, who's great, but she's given nothing to do here but literally bitch).

The Maid's Room is a thriller and it needs to thrill. All it drew from me was a semi-bored, confounded stare.

..the film was atmospheric and to some degree well acted and directed.

The early half of the film was pretty good leaving me with a plot I was about settle into and in the main enjoy. I enjoyed the superiority of the rich against the poor. The lady of the house informing the maid 'my son has been sick in the garage, clean it up'

I particularly enjoyed the early stand off against maid and wealthy owner .....there were some early clues of the rich kid attitude.

Matters did take a predictable course but could I predict the conclusion, not really because I could not make out the action as most of the plot, unfortunately, was shot ...no pun intended... in darkness and I believe this really did spoil what could have been a thriller of worth.

Although it's amateur in many ways, the moods the movie takes you through is a creepy journey making have elements of a thriller but hidden deep within the story line. It is basic in nature as other reviews say, it is predictable. But the cinematic experience is great with plenty of intense moments

"The Maid's Room" is a surprisingly decent little psychological thriller that came and went without anyone noticing. The maid in question is Drina whose knowledge of a crime forces her employers to take rather drastic action to prevent her from going to the police. It's stylishly made and at one point seems to be paying something of a homage to Mr Hitchcock and there's a good performance by that fine and underused actress Annabella Sciora as the mother who will go to any lengths to protect her son though, unfortunately, her part is never really developed. If the plot's a tad on the thin side, at least it feels original and it's better than the critics suggested. In fact, 50 years or so ago this would have been a B-movie and we would be singing its praises for being so much better than other B-movies of the period.