Two weeks ago I didn't even know who
Amanda Seyfried was although probably a good chunk of the rest of the world did. Then I saw
The Housemaid. I certainly knew who
Sydney Sweeney - today's H'Wood It-Girl - was but didn't know who the hell the opposite character in this comedic-horror picture exactly was. Long blond hair and very pliable acting persona, check and check.
The Housemaid isn't that great a film but adequate and will bring a smile to your face. It's directed by
Paul Feig, who seems to specialize in suburban comedy-mysteries. I really liked his
A Simple Favor (2018) with mischievously quirky - and cute - Anna Kendrick. In this film Sweeney as the maid is paired
against Seyfried as the house chatelaine. I'll let you decide how the dynamic unfolds. The story actually had me going, not expecting the monumental plot twist that eventually happens. Seyfried, however, plays a blend of personalities showing off quite a wide breadth of styles. That's enough about
The Housemaid. A few nights later I caught
The Testament of Ann Lee,
Mona Fastvold's take on the 18th century
Quaker Shakers sect, which apparently only has two remaining members. Seyfried plays Lee. Of course this is an entirely different character and extends Seyfried's range - is it limitless? But not only that, this is a musical - the best thing I loved about the film although the numerous scenes of Shakers doing their shaker thing - wild stiff hypnotic body movements - was pretty awesome. And her voice is sweet and melodic voicing a score (
Daniel Blumberg) based on traditional Shaker hymns. Fastvold may have conceived the film as a feminist take on evangelical Christianity as Shakers believe Jesus' Second Coming will be as a woman.
Hamnet - It was a big in-theater movie week last week for me - count 'em, three nights is a row! - when I took in the movie everyone is talking about. I shouldn't have got my hopes too high.
Hamnet (Chloé Zhao) is a very well made film and the acting by Jessie Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare and Paul Mescal (another one who is everywhere these days) as good ol' Will, is fine indeed, even though I wondered about that earring in Mescal's ear. But if you're expecting a wide sweep about Shakespeare's life and times forget it. This is essentially an intimate family drama - substitute the Shakespeares, in fact, for any modern family - and not about the Bard's genius. In fact he comes off as a bit of an oaf. And it might even resonate with that whole "long distance relationship" thing. The last scenes of the production of the play Hamlet (another name for Hamnet) at London's
Globe Theatre, however, are magnificent. Everybody says this movie will wring out your tears. I must be a pretty insensitive type because it didn't do that for me, though the woman sitting beside me did take out a Kleenex and dabbed her eyes at the very end.
Seyfried redux: Despite her stupendous acting I can't let mention of her go by without commenting on her Marie Antoinette tendencies. Our dear Amanda recently spent tens of thousands to have her pooch transferred on private jets to her Testament shooting locales in Hungary and Sweden. "It was not in my best interest financially, but it was in his best interest, and my emotional best interest, because I needed him there," says the diva. Revolutions were started because of behavior like this.
