Housekeeping

PG

Released Dec 25, 1987

1 hr. 57 min.

Comedy

Drama

List

93%

14 Reviews

Tomatometer

84%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Lucille (Andrea Burchill) and Ruth (Sara Walker) come to live with their off-the-wall Aunt Sylvie (Christine Lahti) after their mother kills herself. From sleeping on park benches to methodically stacking tin cans into pyramids, Sylvie's quirks are at first hard to get used to. While Ruth eventually grows fond of the woman's irrepressible spirit, Lucille starts to resent her aunt's behavior -- especially when it brands them as outcasts among their small town's perplexed residents.

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Rebekah S

Americans are notoriously intolerant of benign eccentricity. This subtle film shines as a valentine to it while not shying away from recognizing its social consequences.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

07/17/23

Full Review

William L

One of the most realistic depictions of the elderly you'll ever see in film - making conversation by bringing up people they very vaguely knew whose obituaries turned up in the local paper. Housekeeping is an interesting take on nonconformity - Lahti's Sylvie toes the line between liberated, independent thinking and chaotic negligence. This attitude isn't just conjured up out of nowhere; both Sylvie and her nieces end up fully embracing or totally rejecting the nomadic, unattached lifestyle as a result of personal tragedy. For one sister, the safety of convention is enough to move on, while for another, the indulgence of wandering is worth the potential for ostracism. There's independence here, but also a real risk of excessive gratification and irresponsibility. You don't want to start hoarding cans on the kitchen table and bundling up newspapers for the local church crowd to ogle at, after all. Interesting, restrained, and distinct from the many other 'social renegade', Dead Poets Society-esque films that popped up in the late '80s and early '90s. (3.5/5)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

12/07/21

Full Review

Audience Member

enough time passes since i read the book i had forgotten alot. the movie brought to life items one misses in the book, like Ruthie walking with her head down all the time. and the sheer anixety in the faces of the girls as they wondered who woudl care for them. LOVED seeing the house flooded!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Very good plot with wacky characters. LOVED IT

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

S R

1001 movies to see before you die. It has unique things to it, but is it a classic? I don't plan to see it again. RUS.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

11/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is not a comedy. One of my favorite movies. Christine Lahti is amazing. It is very disturbing to point that I haven't watched it for years.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

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Bill Forsyth

Director

Christine Lahti

Sylvie

Sara Walker

Ruth

Andrea Burchill

Burchill

Anne Pitoniak

Aunt Lily

Barbara Reese

Aunt Nona

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Simran Hans

New Statesman

Housekeeping is a stranger, sparser, sadder film than it first appears. Forsyth, the Glaswegian film-maker known for Gregory's Girl (1981) and Local Hero (1983), channels the spirit of Robinson's distinctive prose.

Mar 3, 2021

Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

The most impressive thing about this haunting fable is Forsyth's fluidity and grace as a storyteller.

Aug 7, 2015

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

One of the strangest and best films of the year.

Rated: 4/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Elizabeth Pincus

Gay Community News (Boston)

With extraordinary grace, the film wanders between sadness, delight and repose, evoking a full range of emotion about living life on the edge.

Sep 13, 2022

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...the picture's downfall is a result of its often unreasonably (and breathtakingly) deliberate pace...

Rated: 1.5/4

Jan 23, 2021

Full Review

Nathanael Hood

Unseen Films

Everything from the casual mutterings of hobos to the cluck-cluck-clucking of gossiping old biddies is perfectly just so.

Rated: 7/10

May 11, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

Lucille (Andrea Burchill) and Ruth (Sara Walker) come to live with their off-the-wall Aunt Sylvie (Christine Lahti) after their mother kills herself. From sleeping on park benches to methodically stacking tin cans into pyramids, Sylvie's quirks are at first hard to get used to. While Ruth eventually grows fond of the woman's irrepressible spirit, Lucille starts to resent her aunt's behavior -- especially when it brands them as outcasts among their small town's perplexed residents.

Director: Bill Forsyth
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 25, 1987, Original
Release Date (Streaming): May 25, 2010
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

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