Incisive study of class relationships between a pauperized would-be aristocratic woman and the maid who is increasingly ready to break free.
Comment
12/14/07
Live-In Maid (2004)
100 %
Reviews Counted: 31 Fresh: 31 Rotten:0 Average Rating: 7.6/10
Consensus:
Live-In Maid is an insightful character piece with standout performances and a poignant slice of Argentina life.
Runtime: 87 mins
Synopsis: This Argentinean comedy centers on the tenuous friendship between a woman and her maid. Though the former aristocrat finds her finances dwindling, she holds onto her maid as proof she still belongs to the upper class in Buenos Aires. [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Norma Aleandro, Norma Argentina
Reviews
Live-in Maid is a study of two women who appear not to like each other very much, yet their link makes for a moving drama about friendship.
10/19/07
Top Critic
It paints a lovely, intimate portrait of a complex relationship and shows a side of Latin American life we rarely see on American screens.
10/18/07
Top Critic
From the rooms and spaces which house the two women to the slow unraveling of their history together, Live In Maid is a wonder of economic storytelling.
10/14/07
As a character study it carries a quiet, almost serene dramatic power as well as a strong current of dark humor.
09/24/07
If you care about the art of movie acting, run to the Charles to see Norma Aleandro bring tragicomic stature to the role of a haute bourgeois Buenos Aires woman fallen on hard times in Live-In Maid.
09/21/07
A vivid portrait of a society in the midst of wrenching change, but it transcends its immediate context to become a thoughtful, even unforgettable, chamber piece, performed with exquisite subtlety by two fine actresses.
09/20/07
Writer/director Jorge Gagggero has made a sensitive and lovely portrayal of two women.
09/15/07
Gaggero not only draws out such nuances from the two women but illustrates the complexities of their friendship with carefully constructed cinematography.
09/08/07
Live-In Maid is a modest chamber piece enriched by its affecting human harmonies and overtones.
08/31/07
Even if I knew how things turned out in Live-In Maid, a fine Argentinean film with English subtitles, I wouldn't give away the ending.
08/30/07
Live-in Maid is a fascinating directorial exercise in observing characters whose long history together is coming to an end.
08/10/07
Gaggero keeps his focus on the two women who, in order to survive, discover they must drop the facade of class and act upon their 30-year relationship.
08/09/07
An unexpectly affectionate study of friendship between two very different Argentinian women who come from two different social classes.
07/21/07
Dora and Beba both seem like real people, independent women who struggle to hide how dependent they really are.
07/21/07
Writer-director Gaggero shoots for a kind of docu-realism, with a few overtly cinematic interludes, like one well-paced split-screen sequence.
07/21/07
The economic and social crisis that rocked Buenos Aires is only obliquely referred to, but in the character of Beba -- so beautifully played by the great Norma Aleandro -- we see the image of Argentina: a dignified beauty laid low by economic catastrophe.
07/20/07
They [Aleandro and Argentina] take what could be clichéd characters and turn them into living, breathing people that viewers can care about.
07/20/07
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