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The Lost Daughter - Left Me Searching


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Maggie Gyllenhaal made her directorial debut with a film based on a novel by Elena Ferrante.  It starred Olivia Colman, Ed Harris and Dakota Johnson.  The film focuses on Colman's obsession with a young mother and her daughter while on vacation in a small, Greek coastal town.  The film cuts back and forth between present day and flashbacks to Colman's past as a young mother.  Colman's Leda is dealing with ghosts from her past when a brash American/Greek family share the beach with her as she begins to feel overwhelmed by her past which Johnson's Nina has stirred.  The action of this movie is in Leda's head as she struggles with feelings of inadequacy, despair and guilt.  An event on the beach leads to Leda inexplicably doing something she shouldn't have.

 

Perhaps this is my problem and not the film's.  As we watch movies with more twists and more action and more mystery, some movies which steer precisely where we anticipate them to go leave viewers wanting.  That's the tragedy of this movie - is there is plenty of conflict and emotion experienced and resurfaced for Leda, but it feels like something more should happen.  For Gyllenhaal's debut, it's a solid movie.  It is a tragedy in all senses of the world and forces the viewer to consider patriarchal society and how women have often been handed the shortest straw.  Expectations thrust on women to choose between motherhood, career and experiencing life as they want forces regret and one too many balls to juggle.

 

The theme has stuck with me, but parts of the movies execution didn't resonate with me.  As I mentioned before, I felt as lost in this as Nina's daughter at the beginning of the movie.  The end of the movie does not clear this fog.  However, I have considered that's precisely what Gyllenhaal intended - perhaps forcing the audience to experience Leda's feelings.  Colman's performance is stunning.  This role proved that her Best Actress Oscar win for The Favourite was no fluke.  She flawlessly shows us Leda as someone who values her independence yet seeks others' affection, connection and approval.  It's this conflict which drives the movie.  Regardless, this didn't sit with me as I'd have liked.  I give it 6/10 stars.  It's worth a watch, but I'm not sure I'd watch it again.

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