The Housemaid: Book vs Film #1

Over the past two years, I’ve read just short of 100 books and a significant number of these have been turned into films or TV shows. 

There’s a long-standing belief that ‘the book is always better’ but in my experience, I haven’t always found that to be the case. While some adaptations elevate the source material, others miss the point entirely – and lots land somewhere in between.

In this series, I’ll be comparing popular novels with their on-screen counterparts, looking at what works, what doesn’t and whether the story is a better experience on the page or screen.

We’re starting strong with the film I saw most recently at the cinema, that just happened to be the adaptation of one of my favourite reads from last year.

Freida McFadden excels at writing twisty thriller books with short chapters that encourage you to ‘just read one more’ and before you know it, you’ve read the whole story in a couple of days. 

The Housemaid was a monster hit (it’s rated 4.28 out of 5 on Goodreads from more than 3.2 million reviews) so it’s not difficult to see why it was turned into a film. 

Casting is hit and miss

When Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried were cast as Millie and Nina, I had my reservations but had less of an issue with Brandon Sklenar and Michele Morrone being chosen to play Andrew and Enzo, respectively. 

Amanda Seyfried ended up being brilliant, despite the filmmakers taking liberties with her supposedly overweight and sluggish appearance as is the case in the book (she does not look either). There was one scene in particular, in the kitchen, which was exactly as I had imagined when reading it. 

I don’t particularly rate Sydney Sweeney as an actor but she wasn’t offensively bad in this. She doesn’t have as much range as Seyfried, but in a popcorn thriller like this she doesn’t really need to. 

Missing the psychological depth

One of the aspects I really enjoyed about the book was all the psychological stuff but I don’t think the film communicated the characters’ motivations quite as well. 

I really enjoyed the final act of the book and a good ending is often the difference between me giving something four or five stars. 

Here, it was a bit too out there and gratuitously violent. I understood why they made certain changes, as they may not have translated as well to screen but one difference in particular really took me out of it. 

It’s a shame really because I did massively enjoy myself for the vast majority of the movie and it’s probably only because of that changed ending that it fell a little flat.

So, on this occasion, the book is better. However, it’s a lot closer than I anticipated it would be after watching the trailer. 

This is the first entry in my Book vs Film series. Let me know in the comments which adaptations you’d like me to tackle next.