|
 I
don’t know if there’s a Jeon Do-Yeon fan club in the US, but I’d be
happy to start one. The actress, who gave the performance of a
lifetime in 2007’s Secret Sunshine, is poised to be one of the truly
great actors of our time. Her lack of vanity or ego in the
beauty-obsessed Korean film industry is refreshing, and Jeon, along with
fellow Korean star,
Bae Doo-na, who also possesses the same
cinematic selflessness, are two of my favourites of recent years. It
makes me sad then that a film like The Housemaid (- a remake of a
1960 Korean classic by director Kim Ki-young), which could possibly
be her widest American release, isn’t going to do much for her.
Jeon
is Eun-yi, a simple girl hired by a wealthy family as their new nanny.
There is an adorable, preternaturally sophisticated little girl to look
after and twins shortly on the way. The family has everything anyone
could ask for; stunning home, all the perks and amenities money can buy,
but it’s never enough. The lord of the manor spies Eun-yi’s shapely
gams as she busily cleans their bathtub and decides he needs a new toy
to play with to distract him from his wife’s gigantic pregnancy and
resulting bad humour. Eun-yi gives in without any particular
hesitation and the two walk an Upstairs/Downstairs tightrope. She
fulfills her duties around the house, including the hand-washing of
Madame’s knickers, while appearing to be no more to the husband than
another household appliance until everyone’s asleep. Mrs. Cho, the
long-suffering senior housekeeper, sees all and after decades of
obligation and service to this family, feels the need to inform them of
some changes she notices in Eun-yi. All that money and nobody can
afford a condom. Eun-yi’s pregnancy turns the household upside down,
with the “ladies” of the house plotting Eun-yi’s future and
understanding that there’s no amount of money that will make Eun-yi
eliminate her baby for their convenience. Mrs. Cho watches harm come to
her underling, but still sides with them even as the family marshals all
its wealth and connections against the simple young woman.
The
Housemaid is at its core a story of class warfare; how the rich can do
anything and the poor just have to take it. This would be fine and good
if it weren’t for the added component of Eun-yi’s apparent slowness.
It’s never made clear if she is impaired in some way or just naïve, but
her actions, particularly post-pregnancy, are often too hard to
swallow. Her inability to see what’s in front of her, to protect
herself and her baby is beyond frustrating; it’s a plot device and not a
good one. Here’s where Jeon Do-yeon’s talent comes into play because
she doesn’t make Eun-yi’s mental state a throwaway judgment: Jeon plays
her as possibly slow, but also with an off-hand charm and
straightforward seductiveness. Does this give us an answer? No, but it
gives the character more depth than she might have had and makes her
more interesting. Unfortunately, the glaring problems of Eun-yi’s
actions are still there, nearly obscuring the main gist of the film.
The
cast is excellent, leading of course with Jeon, who should be hooked up
to a generator as a power source for all the real warmth she brings to
the screen. Especially touching are her scenes with the aloof little
daughter (- a great performance by the haunted-eyed Ahn Seo-hyeon),
who clings to cheerful, loving Eun-yi in her loneliness. Jeon’s
dominance in the film is undercut by Yoon Yeo-jeong’s powerful turn as
Mrs. Cho, whose contempt for the family she’s served for so long is
inexorably intertwined with her sense of duty to them. The slow
creeping out of the humanity she’s hidden behind starched uniforms is
brought about by Eun-yi’s sunny disposition, youth and vulnerability,
exposing years of painful regret and resentfulness. Seo Woo as the
hugely pregnant, spoiled wife and Park Ji-young as her cruelly
calculating mother are truly a gruesome twosome, more appalled by the
husband’s low-class choice of mistress than by his cheating.
My
other issue was the terribly missed opportunities with cinematography.
Mostly set inside the family’s mausoleum-cold estate, filled with only
the best of everything there is to have; how wonderful it would have
been to set up the entire film with the wide angles we are occasionally
shown that reveal the cavernousness of the family’s life; the
magazine-slick remote luxury they dwell in, each in their own lonely
worlds. Instead -- and far too frequently -- director Im Sang-soo opts
for utterly unnecessary handheld camera shots, moving around when the
characters are not, attempting to give a pointless documentary feel when
the gothicness of a broad, steady scene would have always sufficed.
The
Housemaid is mostly enjoyable, soapy, melodramatic schlock that is
buoyed up by its great cast. The meditations on the disparities of
class are worthy and often chilling, but our subject and her issues read
more as a plot contrivance than an organic part of the narrative and get
in the viewers’ way.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
January 21st, 2011
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