The new movie “The Housemaid” is about a young woman Millie Calloway, played by Sydney Sweeney, who is desperate and living in her car after being released from prison after 10 years for committing murder. Despite Millie’s education she had no other job options than trying to be a live in housemaid to a family Nina and Brandon Winchester , played by Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar and their daughter Cece.
The beginning of this story of both normal and predictable, but as the story moves forward we are surprised by one insane revelation after another and this movie does do a very good job at surprising the audience with unexpected twists and turns. Nina has a whole series of mental problems starting with Bipolar disorder and is prone to huge bouts of anger and rage, that also includes lying to and mentally torturing the new housemaid, Millie. Many of these scenes are over the top and disturbing, too many are hard to watch.
The conclusion of this story is a highly unusual 25% of the film, devoted to explaining the story and past events that lead up to Millie, Nina and Brandon living in the same house. In my experience, with films that need to explain what happened, are normally a major sign that this is a bad screenplay and bad movie. However, this time around, the 25% end of story explanations are well enough done that they do not destroy the ending of this movie. However, what was really going on during these two hours, is so convoluted and crazy that it all mostly makes little sense. The final conclusion is violent and even involves mental and physical torture, and the surprises at the end are almost impossible to see coming.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are a too high 78% with my rating, 70% and a moderate recommendation.
The atrocities of World War II, perpetrated on humanity, are some of the worst in the entire history of the world. The millions of murders, mostly of Jews in Europe, were so extreme that once the war ended, all governments in the world realized that something had to be done to punish the Nazi animals responsible, if for no other reason, to try and prevent something like this from ever happening again. The problem was that the world had never put war criminals on trial, with the United States, Russia, England, and Ireland all interested in bringing this group of Nazi war criminals to justice.
Then the problem became hiring a psychologist, Major Douglas M. Kelley, to determine whether these Nazi war criminals were mentally fit to stand trial, which is the major part of the new movie “Nuremberg”, starring Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring and Rami Malek as Douglas Kelly. The many conversation scenes between Crowe and Malik in this movie were very well acted, with Crowe giving one of his best acting performances in decades.
The lead prosecutor for the Nuremberg trial, Robert H. Jackson, played very well by Michael Shannon, provides some of the best scenes in this film, as he interviews Göring, with the help of the prosecutor from England, getting Göringto admit that after he testified that he knew nothing about the mass murders, that given what he knows now, he still would not go against Adolf Hitler.
The aftermath of the trial included the righteous hanging of all the Nazi War criminals, with Göring committing suicide with a long-hidden cyanide capsule, minutes before he was scheduled to be hanged. The life of Douglass Kelly took a very negative turn for years after the Nuremberg trials, where he suffered from extreme depression and took his own life in 1958.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are way too low 72%, as this movie was also snubbed for Golden Globe nominations, where Crowe, Malik, and Shannon all should have been nominated for best actor awards. None of this makes any sense for a movie about an extremely important part of world history and such standout acting. My rating is an 85% and a solid recommendation to see this well-acted and important movie.
James L. Brooks is arguably one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. Starting with “Terms of Endearment” (1983) and followed by “Broadcast News” (1987) and then with “As Good as it Gets” (1997) his movies – the combination of great comedy and drama, have set a standard of excellence that have made films like these in a category all on their own, a “James L. Brooks type” movie. Due to Brook’s dedication and hard work, it takes years to write a new screenplay, painstakingly rewriting and improving it over time.
Unfortunately, there is no better example of how difficult it is to write a great screenplay than the career of James L. Brooks. With his huge high high-quality hits ending in 1997, there was a glitch in 1994 with “I’ll Do Anything”, and starting in 2004, with the below-average “Spanglish”, his screenplays ever since the outstanding As Good as it Gets, have declined, ending with the bad new movie “Ella McCay”. One would think that, waiting 15 years since “How Do You Know,” this new movie would have returned to the quality that Brooks achieved with As Good as it Gets.
The critics are at their worst with their reviews of this film. Joshua Mbonu: “With constant misses in the film’s attempts at comedy and performances that are as absent as the film itself, Ella McCay, at the very least, sticks out as one of the more baffling films you’ll watch unfold this year.” Brian Orndorf: “Sadly, brightness of spirit is buried in a mess of a movie, watching Brooks build a maze of characters and motivations he ultimately can’t find his way out of.”Jim Schembri: “A surprisingly spiritless and flustered stumblebum of a comedy.” Marshall Shaffer: “But the screenplay is an otherwise calamitous creation that demonstrates more than just a lack of Brooks’ previous genius. It stands in complete disregard for the most basic principles of screenwriting.” For someone as talented as Brooks, now 88 years old, to see reviews this bad at this late stage in his career has to hurt. This is the life of anyone in Hollywood who places years of work in front of the eyes of critics, who at times can be overly cruel.
The most hard to understand aspect of this film is why there were no checks and balances, and numerous eyes from other directors, producers, and screenwriters who said to Brooks, “This needs about 10 more rewrites.” There is nothing wrong with writing a bad screenplay; the problem is when you have so much fame, money, and clout that you can put out a bad movie like this one, without making sure that it is actually good enough to release.
Ella McCay stars Emma Mackey as Ella McCay, Woody Harrelson as Ella’s father, Eddie McCay, who is a serial cheater, Rebecca Hall as Ella’s mother, Jamie Lee Curtis as Ella’s aunt Hellen, and Spike Fearn as Ella’s younger brother, Casey. Kumail Nanjiani has a strange part as a State Trooper in a role that makes very little sense, with very few lines. Ayo Edebiri has a small part in this movie as the former girlfriend of Casey, with scenes that seem to be nothing more than making the running time over two hours. Julie Kavner has an acting/narration role that also makes very little sense, because there seems to be no reason for this movie to have any narration. Albert Brooks is also in this movie as the Governor of an unknown State, and once he decides to take a cabinet position, Ella takes over as the Governor, in her early 30s. Of course, none of this makes any sense. Given that Ella is so young as Lieutenant Governor, it is unlikely that a Governor of a State would leave his job under these conditions. There is a scene at the end of this movie with Ella and her aunt Helen standing and screaming out their frustrations to each other, which gives an ironic twist, because this is exactly what any fan of James L. Brooks wants to do after sitting through this waste of two hours.
This movie is a series of mostly disconnected stories that try to be funny or interesting, but when thrown together, do not seem to have any direct point or overall message. The plot is very difficult to fully describe because there is no definable plot that you would expect within a major movie release.
In terms of the actors and the great screenwriter involved, this huge miss is one of the biggest surprises I have seen since last year’s complete disaster “Megalopolis”, which redefined the definition of what a bad movie is. The Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 20% for this amazingly bad film are correct. This one should be missed at all costs.
The Grid below is a list of all the great, average, and bad James L. Brooks movies since his massive hit in 1983 with Terms of Endearment, which won for best picture, best director, best actress Shirley Maclaine, Jack Nicholson for best supporting actor, and best adapted screenplay.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 