[star rating=”4.5″] THE LOST DAUGHTER. Written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. With Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley and Ed Harris. Showmax.
MEGAN CHORITZ reviews
Was it just my mood, or is The Lost Daughter an absolute masterpiece? The film has been on my “to watch” list since it was released but for some reason I needed to build up some kind of strength to watch it. I finally sat down to watch it last night, and I was utterly blown away by the sheer force of the movie.
Now I am trying to articulate what it was that moved me so profoundly, and the best and simplest explanation is that The Lost Daughter is so completely, unwaveringly honest.
The incomparable Olivia Colman plays an awkward, socially challenged, self-conscious, middle-aged professor, Leda, who arrives at her Greek beach holiday spot and becomes increasingly preoccupied with a young mother, Nina, and her daughter. This relationship triggers memories of her own relationship with her daughters, focusing on when they were little. This is the central theme of the movie, where everything that happens is through Leda’s prism. It is extremely uncomfortable watching, and the out-of-focus, disturbing opening of the film only makes sense right at the end. Even then, what happens is left ambiguous.
Deeply upsetting and dangerous
Leda is an entirely unreliable narrator. Her actions are unpredictable and deeply upsetting. And then Jessie Buckley intrudes as Leda as a young mother, making things worse, more unstable, achingly off-centre, and dangerous.
Maggie Gyllenhaal tells the story through powerful, unerring direction. The scenes are slow, brutal, emotional. The flashbacks are treated with equal brutality. Mothers in trouble. The constant cry from children who need, need, need attention from mothers who cannot give it. What Leda recognises in Nina is herself, her own failures, her own desperate needs. And Nina sees a flash of herself in Leda too.
Smouldering car wreck of a film
I formed my own opinions about what happened, which is different from what was said, or even inferred. There are wide gaps here, for the viewer to decide. None of it is pleasant. I had two niggles. One was a tiny, skinny thing, that played too big a part, but I don’t want this to be a spoiler, on the off chance that you, the reader, will want to watch it. The other is that Dakota Johnson could not meet the challenge of the character of Nina, especially alongside Olivia Colman.
I don’t think many people will sit through this smouldering car wreck of a film, despite its brilliance, and including the most extraordinary cameo by the remarkable Ed Harris as Lyle.
What: The Lost Daughter
Where: Showmax
WS
