I have been excited for The Housemaid movie since it was announced. Millie is in desperate need of both a job and a place to live— enter a job offer from Nina Winchester as a live in housemaid. A lot stayed true from book to movie but there were a few key things that felt way too different for me, which made me overall disappointed in the movie.

Casting vs. Imagination

• Millie Calloway: I don’t feel like Sydney looked a lot like how I imagined her to, which is okay because I do feel like she played the roll of Millie extremely well.

• Nina Winchester: I love Amanda, and most of my issues with Nina I think were with the writing of the movie and not her acting. I don’t think they wrote Nina right? She was a lot more direct and vulgar than in the movie and didn’t fit how Nina was supposed to be.

• Andrew Winchester: Nothing of Andrew is how I expected or thought he should be based on the book.

Key Plot Deviations (The “Spoiler” Section)

The condensed timeline is to be expected it was done pretty well, a lot of my issues are the main plot points that were changed;

• There were certain times I felt Nina was more aggressive than in the book, and it wasn’t needed.

• The big argument Nina and Andrew has I feel like in the book was more mysterious. With Andrew coming out of the room I feel like it took that away.

• Enzo feels like he was pushed to the side when he is such a big part of the book. I kept waiting for more parts with him.

• Cecelia giving all the hints about juice being a privilege took away some of the shock of the twist of Andrew being the crazy one.

• Millie getting arrested for “stealing Nina’s car” instead of just shoplifting didn’t feel the like gasp Nina’s watching me like in the book.

I did, however enjoy the way they handled the POV change because that was such a big part of the book.

Atmosphere and Visual Storytelling

I feel like the house was done really well and I liked how the attic room was shown. In the book we rely on Millie’s thoughts— what I liked about Sydney’s portrayal of Millie is how she is able to show she’s being submissive to Nina because she’s so desperate to keep this job to keep in compliance with her parole.

The Ending: Did They Change the Twist?

One thing I did enjoy was how the ending was changed. They made it seem a lot believable to me that Andrew’s death was an accident. This has nothing to do with the book, but the music choice at the end was top notch.

I think if they had kept a few things more similar to how the book was it could’ve been a decent movie. I’m glad I didn’t go see it in theaters, and I’m less excited for the second one now. Which version of Millie’s “dark secret” did you find more convincing—the one you read or the one you saw on screen?