11 December 2024
The Housekeeper (1986)
102 min.
Directed by Ousama Rawi.
With Rita Tushingham, Ross Petty, Shelley Peterson, Jonathan Crombie, Jessica Steen, Jackie Burroughs, Tom Kneebone, Peter MacNeill, Donald Ewer.
Tushingham is terrific as Eunice, an unbalanced Brit who comes to America to work for a wealthy family.

An outcast since childhood and unable to read or write (a fact unknown to her employer), she soon resorts to blackmail...and worse.

Things turn tragic when Eunice befriends a "reformed" born-again Christian in the town (a performance of wild perfection by Burroughs), who is anything but.

The shocking climax is inevitable but still packs a wallop.

Based on Ruth Rendell's novel A Judgment In Stone, which was also the inspiration for the 1995 French film La Ceremonie.

Elegant score by Paul Zaza.

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