By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25 cats
Director: Mariana Wainstein
Starring: Agustín Della Corte | Felipe Gonzalez Otaño | Julieta Cardinali | Minerva Casero | Rafael Spregelburd
Year: 2025
Running time: 100
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33035303/reference/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1
Aaron says: “LINDA doubles as a thriller that doesn’t quite thrill and a portrait of an enigmatic main character that never gels into a thoughtful enough character study. Mariana Wainstein’s Argentinian film has a promising setup: alluring maid Linda (Eugenia ‘China’ Suárez) captivates all four members of a Buenos Aires family, each lusting after her in different ways. Linda is cold to the advances of the father and son, but more encouraging to the daughter and especially the mother.
“Everyone in the film seems to objectify Linda. One of the more interesting things that LINDA does is to offer up the main character as a blank slate. With a lack of information or defining characteristics about Linda, we’re forced into the same attitude as the people who inhabit her world—we imagine a version of her instead of seeing her as she is. That makes for an uneasy feeling because most of the people in the film are pretty awful.
“The film comes alive every time Suárez shares the screen with Julieta Cardinali as the family’s matriarch Luisa. Cardinali is an open book, her body language registering surprise at being seen and then longing. If Suárez at first seems as withholding as her character, she becomes more knowable in these scorchingly carnal scenes.
“While it’s refreshing that LINDA never goes into violent thriller mode, the film is all slippery innuendo and frustrates for not making hard choices. For all its seductive qualities, LINDA ends as mysteriously as it began, without settling on an identity. 3 Cats“
Val says: “The film’s titular characters’ name literally meaning ‘beautifu'” is easy foreshadowing into its sexy, but inevitable plot. The introduction of a new maid, Linda, to temporarily replace one whose absence is never really explained, causes a wealthy family to unravel along already taut fault lines.
“I enjoyed the film for what it was, and applaud Mariana Wainstein for her delicate treatment of the characters and script that allowed each actor to fully explore their characters and the relationships between them. The male family members were more like caricatures of the lascivious husband with a wandering eye that is almost expected by the society around him, leaning on his career accolades and material possessions to impress those of the gentler sex; and the teenaged son who is more concerned with his own sexual gratification than literally anything else around him. The women are more nuanced and really get a chance to shine in this script, with the chemistry between Linda and Luisa (played by China Suárez and Julieta Cardinali, who crackle on screen) of special note. The plot is perhaps what one would expect, with no real thrilling twists and turns, but with a tension that builds satisfyingly towards the finale, but that simmers quietly into resolution that appears to leave the status quo intact. But there is a poignant comparison drawn around a neighbors’ dog that comes to leave ‘presents’ in the yard and what Linda has done to the family that I really enjoyed.
“I wanted more out of it, but a worthy watch all the same. 3.5/5 cat”