The Chambermaid

La Camarista (The Chambermaid, 2019) by mexican director Lila Avilés is a film that shows a level of freedom within the confines of a restricted budget that is just mindblowing.

If you read the rest of the reviews around here you will get a sense of the style it's shot: the camera, using beautiful cinematography, is a passive witness to a hotel chambermaid's daily routine. There is no spectacularity, not an earthquake to shatter the main character, she's never accused of stealing stuff... There's no dramatic trigger to turn this story into a powerhouse drama. Instead, Avilés chooses, wisely, to dwell on her star's nuanced but effective performance. Gabriela Cartol's Evelina (the maid in the title) is a shy, dreamy and sometimes annoying woman. A real person instead of a stereotype. We're not here to lament her poverty, but to join her daily conversations, her momentary daydreaming, her spirit breaking apart or becoming stronger.

Avilés is not interested on bringing disaster into her characters' lives. She doesn't want them to unravel, instead we're drawn into this colossal universe of a big city hotel and breaks into its small spaces and corners, revealing beauty in routine.

An overall enjoyable experience for audiences who relish subtlety, La Camarista manages to feel as a refreshing take on a cliché subject.

The daily life of Eve, a chambermaid at one of the most luxurious hotels in Mexico.

A film about routines, uncertainties, dreams and banalities, which won me over since the beginning.

The action takes place all within the hotel walls, which highlights the feeling of lack of freedom and the bonds that a low class person deals daily in order to survive.

We don't see any members of her family or friends in any scene, we just know the relationships that Eve has through phone calls, conveying the feeling of absence and lack of support from the people around her, even though it is evident that she loves them.

As the main character loses his inhibition and learns to let go, very interesting moments emerge, all of which are essential for the whole narrative. A scene in one of the hotel's rooms, next to a window made me think "wow, I wasn't expecting this!".

I see this film as a form of homage to the invisible people who pass through our lives every day, without being given credit and respect.

A maid in a Mexico City hotel hopes to move up the ladder.

This is a well made, engrossing film about what happens behind the scenes and when you are not in your hotel room. The main character named Eve is a 24 year old single mother who wants to get her GED and get a better paying job in the hotel. There are several interesting shots of her looking very small among the mounds of linen as she cleans rooms, there is an astounding shot of her on the roof as well. She has some interesting and bizarre encounters with guests and co workers. This is no Hollywood fairy tale like Jennifer Lopez in "Maid In Manhattan". This is a realistic view into a snapshot of life not many get to see. Although it is a fictional scripted movie it reminded me of the great documentaries by Frederick Wiseman. I always felt that seeing normal everyday people going about their day are fascinating, and it held my interest the whole time. I hope more people will seek this out, especially if you like your films real and quietly effective that avoids all Hollywood cliches.

I genuinely felt bad for the maid in this film, but I feel even more bad for the fact that I wasted an hour and forty minutes watching an unfocused and unguided film that all could have been trimmed down to a twenty minute short film. The Chambermaid could basically be summed up like this: woman struggles in her job as a hotel maid, and while attempting to get her GED, she continuously suffers from people overlooking her and being an outcast in society. Yes, that sounds all fine and dandy, but again, these freaking indie films just love showing main characters walking around for what seems like hours.

The main character cleans. Then she walks down the hall. She stares at random objects. She cleans some blankets. She goes to GED classes. She speaks one sentence. Repeat. It gets extremely boring and repetitive.

I will say that I was enlightened with getting an insight into the struggles of what Mexican maids have to go through, especially in their struggle to rank up in their crummy job, but that does not make this film good. The main character was horribly developed and literally had no character, so how am I supposed to really care? I sympathize with maids, but I do not sympathize with her.

All in all, this was a boring film that really needs a trim of about an hour. Get rid of GED crap. Get rid of phone calls to home. Get rid of boring shots of her cleaning for half of the runtime, and just trim it to like a quarter. Maybe focus more on the people, like the young woman with the child, who gave a bit of attention to our main character.

Watch the movie if you like to watch people clean or if you like watching people walk around while looking sad.

Which is why I can see many English users saying they think the movie is flat. A very good movie.