In 1960, South Korean society was shaken by the premiere of The housemaid, a masterful combination of family drama and thriller A psychological drama in which a maid disrupted the bourgeois and patriarchal order of a wealthy family. It is pure cinephile fantasy to imagine that Kim Ki-young's majestic film—considered the best in the history of South Korean cinema—is at the origin of the best-seller Freida McFadden's viral hit, which Paul Feig (director of some episodes of) is now bringing to the big screen Mad Men and of My best friend's weddingThere is a gulf between the sharp staging and twisted naturalism of the South Korean classic and the aesthetic ineffectiveness of The assistantBy blindly trusting the twists and turns of McFadden's novel, those responsible for this routine adaptation—from the director to the cast, including screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine—fail to create a visually or narratively stimulating spectacle.