A Judgment in Stone

I read the novel years ago and very much enjoyed it. I was looking forward to seeing this film adaptation but was very much disappointed. For a start, moving the action from the UK to America (though filmed in Canada) was a big mistake. For instance, how does an illiterate woman manage to apply for a passport and a visa? It just doesn't make sense. Also, I felt Rita Tushingham, although a good actress, was too sympathetic for the part of Eunice. The contrast between the upper-middle class snobbish Coverdales and the working class Eunice and Joan Smith was better portrayed in Rendell's novel. Giles, the nerdish stepson, was much more bland in this movie. All in all, a disappointment. Stick to the book.

This movie begins where a lady living in England with her father is tormented by the memories of her childhood as an illiterate struggling to read. Her father teases her and nags her about going to school and learning how to read so that she can get a job. The lady, Eunice ends up going to America instead and becomes a housekeeper for a wealthy doctor and his family. Eunice learns how to manipulate people into getting what she wants because she cannot read and becomes a living nightmare for the family. She soon befriends a local church going lady and finds comfort in meeting someone just as crazy and insane as she is. The two become like a Bonny and Clyde team and take on the doctor and his family for revenge. I liked this movie, but it was not a movie that I would remember or even rent again. But it is worth a watch but only if there are no other horror movies your interested in on the shelf.

Rita Tushingham stars as a dyslexic British maid, and formerly abused child who's a little too sensitive about not being able to read. This is NOT a common slasher film, by any long shot, as these types of films were in the 1970's and '80's. After seeing what she does in the kitchen, I've barely been able to hold a knife, or even think about similar scenes from horror films for months. As of this writing, I can't get that scene, or an equally gruesome one from "Parents," out of my mind...and neither will you. And worse, you may even sympathize with her!

A bit of a weird one this flick, a bit hard to find too, because it's a Ruth Rendall mystery. But this tale is filmed in a creepy way, it isn't your average thriller or frightening horror flick, it just get's you by the throat. First we noticed a girl with dyslexia being thrown away by society and her father. Sure, this flick has a message but you get it afterwards when the movie is over. When you're not "normal" and doesn't walk the line you will be torn apart. Nice to see too that they dare to speak about a new family were brother and sister, only by the law but have different mothers, fall in love. I liked this one a lot even that there isn't almost no blood. It's the atmosphere, you even start to get some feelings for the dislexia girl, it could happen in real life. If you ever see this flick in your local store, don't hesitate. And the good old cockney accent really did it for me.

The Housekeeper is a reasonable adaptation of A Judgement in Stone with some dramatic license here and there. Rita Tushingham stars as an illiterate anti-social who murders her father and gets a job as the housekeeper to a wealthy family. She befriends the local busybody and religious freak and they develop a disturbing friendship that leads to murder.

It's not too hard to see where The Housekeeper is going early on. You know the titular character will lose her mind and blood will be shed but this film is interesting enough to leave you wondering how this will all go down and it's still pretty grisly once it does.

Tushingham is wonderful as Eunice and Jackie Burroughs plays to the cheap seats as Joan, the religious freak who gets Eunice mixed up in her own insanity. Everyone else is fine at best.