O Criado, um Conquistador em Apuros

My review was written in March 1991 after watching the movie on Media Home Entertainment video cassette.

Martin Sheen gets to play broad comedy in the tv-aimed French feature "The Maid", a typical yet pleasant gender switcheroo tale.

Like its predecessor film "May Wine" from the same producers, "Maid" is a light and frothy trip to Paris where Sheen plays an unorthodox merger specialist hired to be co-equal to executive Jacqueline Bisset at her bank. In the week before he has to report for work in the City of Light, Sheen rather unconvincingly inveigles his way into beautiful Bisset's apartment on the pretext of becoming her new domestic servant.

Job calls for a sort of governess/maid to take care of the pad for working woman Bisset and tend to her cute but uncontrollable young daughter Victoria Shalet. Gimmick is that Sheen hires a whole squad of real domestics to do all the work for him.

Though he has a local caterer do the key preparations, Sheen has to buckle down and serve food when Bisset throws a dinner party. He handles the inevitable slapstick with aplomb when the banker (Jean-Pierre Cassel) who hired him shows up and he must avoid his gaze to maintain his cover.

The stars handle this souffle of a feature with ease and young Shalet, with British accent is an attractive tyke. Not much is made of the 180-degree turnabout in casting of Sheen from his "Wall Street" role. Climax is a rather uninspired riff on "Working Girl".

Tech credits are okay for this genre, which resembles tv production more than theatrical filmmaking.

Anthony Wayne (Martin Sheen) is a successful banker in NYC. Quite a ladies man, he sometimes has trouble getting up in the morning so he owns an elaborate, speaking alarm clock which showers him with compliments at his awakening. One day, he finds out he is going to be transferred to Paris for awhile. Anthony is delighted. As adjusting to a new continent is difficult, Anthony is sent to France well in advance of his official starting day at the bank. On the streets of Paris, he notices beautiful Nicole (Jacqueline Bisset) and follows her home. As luck would have it, Nicole is desperately wanting a new maid/nanny for her young daughter. Overhearing this, Anthony decides to announce that he has been sent by the agency to be her new maid! He'll be able to get to know Nicole better, that's for sure. However, Nicole's daughter is a brat and the first day is far from easy. Yet, Anthony perseveres. What is going to happen, though, when AW is due at the bank? And, is there a rival for Nicole's affections? This is a fun movie with a cute premise. Sheen is great as the man who explores the world outside of the banking business and who learns that the possibility of getting serious about someone is nothing to fear. Bisset is beautiful as the banker who has had lousy luck in her personal life. The rest of the cast is fine and, of course, the setting in Paris is grand. The costumes are a bit lacking or, perhaps, it is just that they seem so dated. But, that's something minor. If you love romantic comedies, this film is "maid" for you. Get your hands on a copy soon.

It was breezy to say the least, but for the most part it was lightly entertaining. I'm pretty sure that this movie was made, when Sheen was at the bottom of his career, yet he always seems to deliver, even when the material is weak.

I thought this movie was set in the 1980's (like 1984) but was surprised to see how new it was (aka: It felt dated). Much of the situation was contrived, but it was a good type of contrivance I can live with.

Sheen gets very little opportunity to play romantic comedy, but he actually does it quite well.

The trailer and summary say it all. Anthony Wayne is something of a ladies man, except he can't get the ladies. The clock in his house (which I would have thrown out years ago) may be a hint as to why, given the egomaniac side it suggests, but his heart's in the right place. Upon relocating in Paris he spots the lady he wants to spend time with and seeks a way to get closer. When he discovers she needs a maid he promptly turns up, only to discover she has a remarkably obnoxious brat of a daughter, which explains why she hasn't had any joy keeping maids up until now. His cash (allowing him to pay others to do the work), his charm and a good heart win over both mother and daughter. Problem is, he's actually the mother's new co-worker and, when she finds out his true identity, she's not impressed by his lies.

OK, that's the summary, now what's wrong with it (since I gave it 8 and not 10). Primarily, the editing. This is the worst hack-job of editing I've seen in a long time. I'm sure there was more to explain how Wayne worked his way into the little girl's heart (the fact she managed to memorise the song in record-breaking time without actually being told the lyrics right through hints there's a huge edit there) and without all that, it's too pat. This is a brat of a daughter who's reduced stronger maids than him to pulp. Are we to assume that just because he's a man (and replacing the father-figure, perhaps?) that she's just going to suddenly behave herself? For an all too brief period she actually puts up a fight, but either the script lacked what was needed, or the editor hacked it out. Either way, the turn around from brat of the year to 'adorable' little girl is far too fast and totally unconvincing.

The other problem is that whoever wrote this script knows exactly zip all about making deals, and it shows. Not that I wanted a comedy version of Wall Street but, again, the solution comes too easily and is totally unconvincing.

That said, I enjoyed it. Sheen has some great moments and he's clearly enjoying himself. So much of what he's done in the past is heavy, thought-provoking, horror filled or just plain odd, and he rarely gets the chance to show he has a good sense of humour (although that's presently being rectified with The West Wing, wherein he manages to combine deadly serious, thought provoking stuff with some fall down funny lines). He's doing the best he can with a not very impressive script and, by and large, where the film falls down the problem does not lie in his performance.

This is light-hearted fun. So long as you're not expecting anything more than what is essentially a 'chick-flick' with some nice moments, you won't be disappointed. The guys should enjoy Bisset while the romantics will enjoy something mildly entertaining and totally painless. You KNOW he's going to get his girl. The fact it doesn't make any sense is pretty irrelevant.

Kudos to the actors, serious negative points to the writer and the editor, both of whom need to go back to school.

I came across this movie on 2/19/03. Missed the first part but got into the story line very fast. Not like the usual Martin Sheen part. The plot was good and kept me interested. I think it's a great family movie.