Undyed hair. Unwashed plates. A defanged monster. Who are we even supposed to be rooting for? That twist, the lead up and the big finale… (or if you’re after my review it’s here.)
The twist
Nina is the victim and lovely Andrew the abuser. He had love-bombed her when she was a poor single mother to Cece, then once married had shown his true colours. He would lock her in the attic, force her to hurt herself, and have her committed to a psychiatric hospital for months at a time, after framing her for the attempted murder of Cece. She decides that the only way to survive is for her to make Andrew leave her, so she and Cece will finally be free. So, recognising his “type”, she decides to take on a housemaid matching that description, and behave in an increasingly deranged fashion, with the aim that Andrew will leave Nina for the new maid. However when she discovers Millie’s criminal background she realises that Millie could not only tempt Andrew away but also kill him, leaving Nina and Cece completely free…
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Okay, let’s recap the plot from Millie and Andrew’s romantic night away at the musical, in part 1 of the film. Nina has asked Millie to get show tickets for Nina and Andrew, but then claims Millie has bought them for the wrong date as Nina would be dropping Cece at summer camp then. She demands Millie repay the money herself as they will be non-refundable. Andrew pretends he has managed to get them refunded but hasn’t. With Nina away taking Cece to camp, he suggests he and Millie go to the show rather than waste the tickets. They watch the show, have dinner and dance, but are too drunk to drive home that night. Andrew gets them separate hotel rooms in an upmarket hotel. Millie’s phone has gone dead. As she charges it in her hotel room she receives a string of messages from Nina culminating in one firing her. Upset, she goes across the hall to Andrew’s room and they end up having sex, and she spends the night with him.
The next day they realise Nina is returning early from dropping Cece off and rush home.
At home, Nina tells Millie and Andrew she knows Millie has been in prison. Nina also gives Millie her own car keys to use for family business as she says Millie’s car is embarrassing.
Shopping in the supermarket, Millie bumps into one of Nina’s mum friends, who explains that the phone Nina gave Millie is tracking her. Outside, as Millie loads groceries into Nina’s car, the police arrive and arrest her – Nina has reported the car as stolen. Andrew arrives. Back at the house Andrew tells Nina to leave, which she does. We see Nina stop at the end of the drive as she’s leaving, apparently sobbing.
Andrew and Millie settle in to the house as a couple.
Soon though Andrew’s true colours are revealed. Making breakfast for Andrew, Millie accidentally breaks one of his mum’s hideous heirloom plates. He doesn’t seem too upset and says he has someone who can repair it. She puts all the pieces, unwashed, into a plastic bag to be sent to be repaired. Andrew carries her up to her original little room in the attic, apparently for sex, but drugs her and locks her in. When she wakes up he refuses to let her out until she makes 21 deep cuts into her body with a shard of the broken plate (her “crime” is not washing the broken pieces).
Part 2 of the film shows Nina, kicked out by Andrew, pausing in her car as she exits the drive; while earlier it has looked as if she was crying now we see she is laughing. She goes to a hotel room and drinks champagne, delighted she is finally free. There is a voiceover of a letter she had written to Cece, to be opened when either Nina is dead or Cece is 18 – we hear this over flashbacks to what has really been going on in the marriage. It turns out Andrew is the evil one in the house.
When she was a single mother with baby Cece, struggling to make ends meet, he had loved-bombed her and they had soon married. Everything had been rosy until he started finding fault, eventually locking her in the attic room and refusing to let her out until she had pulled out 100 hairs, including the follicle, for the crime of letting her dark roots show. She then had to repeat this when he claimed that one hair did not have a follicle attached. When she was finally let out she drank a bottle of water he gave her then went downstairs to be reunited with Cece. However she fell asleep from the drugged water. When she woke up she heard running water, and found Cece in the bath with the taps running. Cece nearly drowned but suddenly the house was full of police, called by Andrew. He has set her up, and she was then sectioned and send to a psychiatric facility for trying to kill her daughter and herself. No one believed her story about Andrew’s behaviour and eventually she had to admit to it in order to be allowed home.
Over the years she confided in the groundsman Enzo, who tried to help her as his own sister had been in a similar situation. He managed to obtain false passports for Nina and Cece but Andrew found them and had her sent back to the facility.
Watching Andrew interacting with a nurse on a visit to her she observed how a certain type of young woman appealed to him – his weak spot was that he loved to be adored. Nina realised to escape she had to make Andrew leave her rather than she leave him. So she decided to employ a pretty, young, blonde housemaid – Andrew’s type – for him to fall for, and to eventually take Nina’s place. When she did background checks on Millie before taking her on, and discovered the young woman had been in prison for killing a student who was attacking her friend, she realised Millie could be hired not just to fall for Andrew but to kill him. She knew Andrew would repeat his treatment of Nina and his previous girlfriend once he and Millie were together.
Back in the present day, back at the house, Millie and Andrew have been having an amazing time until she accidentally breaks one of Andrew’s mum’s ugly plates. Millie puts the pieces to be repaired into a plastic bag. Andrew finds them and under the pretence of having sex with her in her old tiny attic bedroom, drugs her and locks her in there. She only has some tiny water bottles and has to pee in a bucket in the room. Unbeknownst to Andrew there is also a knife in there left by Nina for Millie.
When Millie wakes up and discovers she is locked in, Andrew tells her through the door she needs to learn to be better – this is because she didn’t wash the plate pieces before putting them in the bag. She has to cut herself deeply 21 times with the broken bit of plate he shoves under the door. She manages to do this. Eventually he opens the door and finds her asleep on the bed covered in blood. He caresses her and she stabs him in the neck with the knife she found. As he staggers around, she manages to get out and lock him in. He screams at her to let him out as she goes downstairs, coming back with all the precious crockery which she smashes outside the attic room door. She then pushes a pair of pliers under the door demanding he pull out one of his front teeth. She also pours petrol under the door, threatening to light it unless he pulls out the tooth. He agrees, and pulls out his tooth. Millie goes downstairs and starts watching a movie in the basement cinema.
Nina collects Cece from camp two days early and explains they are leaving; Cece knows very well what Andrew is like. Cece wants them to take Millie with them so Nina returns to the house. She sees a light on in the attic room and tiptoes in, thinking it is Andrew in the cinema room, and she is going to free Millie from the attic.
Millie, eating popcorn, hears a noise and goes upstairs to investigate but is too late to stop Nina opening the attic bedroom door. Andrew rushes out and pushes Nina down the stairs, shouting that he knows the two women were in it together. Andrew chases after Millie, following her outside, then comes back in and walks up the stairs where he finds Nina on the landing.
He pretends to be nice – they should start again – however she is having none of it and he goes to attack her. But Millie is behind him and pushes him over the banister at the top of the spiral staircase. He falls on to the hard floor below, dead. Nina unscrews a lightbulb from the light fitting above the drop and it falls, smashing next to Andrew’s body. She is going to tell the authorities he loved everything to be perfect and had been trying to change the dead bulb. However he has a stab wound, and is missing a tooth. Millie drops the tooth down to him.
Nina tells Millie to flee and calls Enzo to help clear up. The police are called. A woman police officer interviews Nina and at first does not seem to believe her story, however she then explains she already knows of Andrew as her sister was his previous girlfriend before Nina. The sister has never been the same since being involved with Andrew. The policewoman makes clear she is accepting Nina’s story.
At Andrew’s funeral, Andrew’s mother speaks to Nina and her mum friends about the privilege of a smile, and notes to Nina that Andrew was missing a tooth – as if she believes him to be rightly dead as he hasn’t taken care of his smile. Nina and Cece are leaving for California. Millie appears at the back of the crowd of guests; Nina goes over and gives her a cheque for $100,000.
Millie is at a job interview for a new live-in housemaid job. The woman says Millie has been personally recommended by Nina Winchester. She explains that her husband is horrible, meanwhile she is fingering the knives in the knife block next to her. Millie agrees to take the job.
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