Roman Perez Jr.'s The Housemaid (Viva Films, 2021) takes place almost entirely within the enormous modern house of a very rich man and centers on the young woman he has hired as a nanny. It involves primarily William (Albert Martinez), his wife Roxanne (Louise delos Reyes), daughter Nami (Elia Ilano) and Martha (Jaclyn Jose), the woman who runs his household. That something disturbing will happen is a given. William is a man who expects all of his wishes to be met without question and in his hermetic household the introduction of the nanny Daisy (Kylie Verzosa) creates an imbalance. His wife, Roxanne, is pregnant with twinscontent to live in expensive idleness. Her focus is on these two latest acquisitions of her marriage. Things are not so smooth with head housekeeper Martha (a terrific Jaclyn Jose), who turns out to be a passive-aggressive catalyst of the melodrama that unfolds. She is no less bitter for understanding the rules of the economic game. Martha’s devil’s bargain ties her with Ester (Alma Moreno), her employer’s scheming mother-in-law. Daisy is efficient, submissive and very attractive. We learn little about her, except that she needs the job. Daisy is in awe of William, who comes home from his job as Master of the Universe and plays flawless classical piano while drinking rare vintages. Roxanne drifts through couture designs. Their daughter Nami is a mystery, much loved and cared for but not much needed. Daisy and Nami instinctively bond, because in this home they are the only two with affection to spend. We know it’s inevitable that William will attempt to seduce Daisy. And it surely is a seduction and coercion, even though she agrees and seems to appreciate it. Sex is a bad bargain if only one party is free to set the terms. Martha sees what is happening because she sees everything that happens. Eventually Daisy’s pregnancy becomes obvious.
The ensuing drama has less to do with Roxanne’s feelings about the affair, it has more to do with hurt and jealousy. Her discovery and the subsequent events are where the movie gleefully cuts into a streak of almost sociopathic selfishness that afflicts some segment of the upper class. But don't let Ester's poise fool you. She's capable of horrific action. Ester tries to dispose of Daisy by accidentally knocking her off a ladder on the second floor of the palatial house. Swinging from the designer chandelier, Daisy drops to the marble floor with little more than a concussion. The mansion is huge and vacuous but no less suffocating. Its vastness is also set in stark contrast to Daisy's tiny apartment, which again draws our attention to the issue of class and economics.Verzosa makes a stunning presence with her brittle beauty which renders her role’s scheming nature all the more chilling. But it is Jose who dominates in the most complex role, providing suspense and a moral compass via her struggles with her conscience and shifting allegiances. As the plot thickens, we’re not certain who holds the upper hand: the envious mother-daughter team of matrons or the league of bitter underlings. The conflict congeals solidly around the females. At some point it’s clear that William is no longer needed — as if he were merely a device to set the four-way cat fight in motion. Perez who pumped a maximum of sex and mayhem into his narrative drama turns the intensity down a notch for Daisy’s story, but maintains that quintessential flair for visually startling set pieces. In its class-warfare specifics and detached observation of the household power struggle, Perez creates a seductive and disquieting thriller in which overt violence is rare but ruthless manipulation and a callous lack of concern for people are commonplace.
Production Designer: Ericson Navarro
Editor: Chrisel Desuasido
Musical Scorer: Earl Francis de Veyra
Sound Design: Aian Louie Caro, Janinna Mikaela Minglanilla
Screenplay: Eric Ramos
Directed By; Roman S. Perez, Jr.
