Live-In Maid

Set in an economically downtrodden Argentina, filmmaker Jorge Gaggero's Live-In Maid tells the tale of a long-suffering maid named Dora (Norma Argentina) who's tired of waiting for months of back wages from her employer Beba (Norma Aleandro), an upper-middle-class alcoholic divorcée. Dora quits, even though her own home life with a lazy boyfriend is far from ideal, but in a twist that's hardly unpredictable (though it's played with amusing understatement), the women eventually find themselves back together again. What makes Live-In Maid work so well as a character study is that neither woman is a clear-cut heroine or villainess. Dora is conscientious and loyal, but she can also display flashes of anger and has an envious appetite for the fruits of middle-class life. Initially, Beba seems like a flighty, pretentious woman who simply refuses to concede her loss of status, but as we watch her futilely trying to make contact with her daughter, or finagle money from her ex-husband, or make ends meet by selling an infomercial-ready line of cosmetics, she gradually begins to generate more pathos than contempt. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a 23-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a fine character study.] (F. Swietek)