Critics,are you kidding us

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The Maid (2009)In some ways this film is extraordinary. It's small, limited in its setting, and it has a slightly predictable inevitability. But it is so seeringly well acted and filmed with an honest small budget honesty, it's hard not to appreciate. It also deals with a huge issue in many countries--the use of household help, often now from other, poorer countries, and the ironies and sadness that goes with this class structure.Catalina Saavedra is "the maid" in this, and like the leading role in the even more astonishing "The Hedgehog" we get inside this person's modest and seemingly invisible persona to really get them, or part of them, for a brief spell. It's moving--it made me cry--and revealing. It's not like we don't know that live-in maids lead an unfair, often unhappy life (which they disguise from their employers). But we aren't often faced with it so plainly.This also is revealing about the standard of living in Chile, which is one of the two or three South American countries fully above the "third world" status you might think at first. The fact it did so well in the United States (earning half a million dollars) is not because it was a glimpse of a foreign impoverished country, but because it resembled so well the situation in American households. Those with maids.See this? Yes, certainly. It has a simple cinema-verite style, not quite home movies but shot almost entirely inside the house in a shaky camera. The plot might not be enough for some viewers--after awhile it is what it is without a lot of complications. Or at least not complications we haven't seen before. What carries it is the sincerity of the performances, especially Saavedra's.

The pleasure of this modest but highly successful offering from Chile is the experience of watching a film unfold in a way that is contrary to one's expectations. Everything to begin with points toward an outcome that could be quite nasty. There is that gradual crescendo of menace remembered from such works as "Play Misty for Me" and "Mon Fils a Moi". We first meet the maid to an upper class Santiago family on her birthday when she reacts awkwardly to the attentions her employers bestow on her. A little later she obviously has her nose put out of joint when it is suggested that she needs an assistant as advancing years are beginning to affect her efficiency. To us she still appears quite young. There are just a few telltale signs that she may be a little past her best, health wise, but she still seems well able to do her job. Assistants one and two come and go, each driven away by the maid's intransigence in refusing to accept their role, accompanied by her ever darkening behaviour. By this stage in the film everything seems to have been set up for quite an awful showdown. But with the arrival of assistant number three the mood suddenly lightens. This isn't a sombre melodrama after all but a real feel-good flick, all the more pleasurable for this unexpected turn. It culminates in a deliciously pertinent closing shot of the maid taking part in the outdoor physical activity enjoyed by her third assistant. She is none the worse for wear and, for one brief moment, is even smiling.

If you enjoy family soap opera and dysfunction, as well as the chance to peep at women as they shower, this is the movie for you.Here we have the story of an attractive, privileged couple somewhere in South America, along with their squabbling children, and the series of maids who put up with them.The main nanny is Raquel, an angry and depressed woman of uncertain intelligence who has sacrificed 20 years to this clan with nothing to show for it but a cramped bedroom and a deplorable attitude.When the stress begins to get to Raquel, the woman of the house decides to get her some help. Raquel proceeds to act out almost psychopathically until one of the maids pummels her and another tries friendship.A little concern and support go a long way with Raquel and she seems to be regaining her grip by the end of the film. I didn't find this story to be that compelling, though it did keep my interest till the end.As hinted above, I resent the filmmaker's gratuitous inclusion of a breast-revealing shower shot of nearly every female in the film. He may be a voyeur; I prefer not to be.

The recent earthquake in Chile drew attention to the South American country, and so it makes "La nana" ("The Maid" in English) all the more interesting. Sebastian Silva's film focuses on maid Raquel (Catalina Saavedra) in a Chilean family's house. Raquel sees herself as a part of this family. She has been using so much chlorine to clean the house that she's starting to have dizzy spells, and so they try to bring in people to help her, causing her to react.I see this movie not only as a look at this woman and her life, but also as a look at 21st century Chile. From what I've heard, the country is advancing in many ways, despite the earthquake (which was stronger than the one in Haiti last January). A young woman whom I know recently went there and lived with the Mapuche Indians, and also met the judge who prosecuted Pinochet. I guess that I can't fully relate that to the events portrayed in "La nana", but I definitely recommend the movie. Worth seeing.