La nana 2009

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: A smart little gem from Chile. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The Maid is a small film but very sure, and extremely well-acted. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The narrative design of The Maid is at once simple and complex. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's a testament to Saavedra's tough performance that even with a happy ending, you wouldn't want to leave her with your kids. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Fun for a while but increasingly tedious... Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes unsettling, and always engrossing, The Maid is a domestic drama about the gulf that exists at impossibly close quarters between the worlds of upstairs and downstairs, the worlds of employer and household servant, Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Silva and Saavedra get across the ennui and irony of a woman who's been working diligently for two decades, only to find that her closest human relationships are with people who hold her job security in their hands. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The tension doesn't just derive from wondering where the story's going to go but to which genre this movie even belongs. Are we in a horror film or a humanist drama? Will Raquel burst into tears or break out the knives? Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The Maid has that particular gift of leaving you off balance in the best possible way, and whenever something like that comes around you owe it to yourself to check it out. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: As played by Catalina Saavedra, she's a guarded, ruthless, but ultimately poignant character, and writer-director Sebastian Silva studies the levers of power inside the little household as if it were the Politburo. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Catalina Saavedra conjures a performance of such unflinching intensity and naked bravery in The Maid that at times it's painful to watch. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Just when her Chilean employwers wonder if she's sociopathic, Saavedra suggests that Raquel's behavior is, in fact, perfectly rational. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Silva's script has the ring of truth, not surprising since he based it on real-life experiences. He even shot most of the scenes in his own family's house. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Silva expertly maintains the tension, asking the audience to interpret Raquel's bizarro behavior. His diagnosis is a pleasant surprise. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: With a few brushstrokes, Sebastian Silva communicates the complicated social and moral dynamic involved in having a live-in maid. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: If Luis Bunuel had joined forces with the Dogme 95 movement and moved to modern-day Santiago, Chile, he might have made a movie like The Maid. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's tough and unsentimental, with a documentary aesthetic that belies the craft of the calibrated tension. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: As unlikable -- and unstable -- as the character is, Saavedra finds a way for the audience to care about Raquel deeply and even to root for her to come out on top with her childish evil plots. Read more

Karina Longworth, Time Out: Saavedra, in an incredibly vanity-free performance, never shies away from Raquel's darkest edges and still forces us to empathize with the frustrations and stunted loneliness of a life lived in servants' quarters. Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: Deadpan, handheld technique allows director Sebastian Silva to mine mundane situations for subtle hazard but also to take his story in unexpected directions, initial reticence preserving the potential for surprise. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: How discomfiting it is to see a good film from a country that is low on any list of film-producing nations. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: Chilean television vet Saavedra goes through one of the most uncanny psychophysical transformations I've ever seen in a movie without the benefit of obvious makeup or other prosthetics. Read more

Jan Stuart, Washington Post: A deserved prizewinner at Sundance, Saavedra seems to age 25 years and then drop 35 in the space of an hour and a half. Read more