The Lost Daughter (lost daughter movie)

[mjwilson]

Anyone caught this one yet? Maggie Gyllenhall directorial debut, with Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson starring, adapted from an Elena Ferrante book.

It's on Netflix now, although I caught it in the cinema.

Thought it was a terrific film, held up by great performances and some interesting themes around motherhood. I've also started reading the book since,

Spoiler alert

and although the source material does feel a bit more coherent with having everyone being Italian,

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it does seem like a very faithful adaptation so far.

[Toxteth OGrady]

Watched it last night and found it a struggle. There wasn't a single likeable character in it.

It didn't help that I'd just been watching a few eps of Peep Show before so it was Sophie on holiday in my unimaginative head.

[dissolute ocelot]

I liked it, although there is a lot that can be criticised. All the characters except the central one are horribly one-dimensional, loads of vulgar Americans (no idea if Elena Ferrante is similarly heavy-handed). Ed Harris likewise seems to be playing himself, but more annoying. But I think that's the point, that she just hates everything and is lonely and miserable and feels her life has passed her by.

It initially seems as if it's really badly photographed, with everything badly lit (in natural light) and the camera far too close, so you can't actually see people's faces properly, or anything else. And the scene at the start where Colman fell over on the beach looked hilariously bad. And the very very obvious scenes with rotten fruit, worms, etc. Later it looks slightly better, but is the least picturesque film ever made about people on a Greek island (possibly this is deliberate).

I've never been a mother, but it did feel authentic as a character study of Leda (Olivia Colman/Jessie Buckley, both of whom are excellent). Some great performances (Dakota Johnson and Dagmara Dominczyk do their utmost to give obnoxious tourists depths), and honesty about being a mother, but please don't let Maggie Gyllenhaal direct any more films.

[Icehaven]

I read a review of this yesterday which seemed to give away the entire plot. I haven't watched it yet but I almost feel like I've already seen it.

[mjwilson]

I liked it, although there is a lot that can be criticised. All the characters except the central one are horribly one-dimensional, loads of vulgar Americans (no idea if Elena Ferrante is similarly heavy-handed).

In the book they are vulgar Neapolitans.

[jobotic]

I read a review of this yesterday which seemed to give away the entire plot. I haven't watched it yet but I almost feel like I've already seen it.

Guardian?

[Icehaven]

Guardian?

Yep that's the one!

[Glebe]

Watched this last night, though it was pretty good. Both moving and unsettling.

[IsavedLatin]

I watched it feeling that (as a woman in my 30s) this was the sort of thing that was going to obtrude itself on my consciousness, and in passing conversations, whether I liked it or not, and so I might want to watch it in order to have an informed opinion. With that motivation, I found it an awful slog to begin with.

However, I did find the moment where

Spoiler alert

Colman says "I left my daughters .... and it was AMAZING" utterly thrilling . To see the utterly stultifying aspects of motherhood depicted head-on was wonderful, and not something I've seen before. At least, not centred in this way, and not with a woman who is ordinary and sane, as opposed to someone who is theatrically MAD or unhinged ... that was quite big to me.

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And at the finish I immediately sought out a pal to ask if she'd seen it, and we had a good 40-minute call going through many different beats of the story -- and I've thought about it a lot in the ten days or so since watching it. I am fairly certain it would be an enormously different watching experience second time round.

Spoiler alert

Particularly the scene with the hitch-hikers, when the man says he'd left his children behind; I interpreted Leda as looking daggers at him, thinking that here lay her future -- that her husband could up and leave her to deal with the kids alone; whereas on a second watch it will be vastly different.

I also think I will be able to enjoy it more on a second watch: I found it almost unbearably tense to watch, braced for the terrible thing to happen, for it seemed so telegraphed from the off that something terrible was set to happen, some sort of outré abuse or grief or something.

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It's also great on lots of bits of female experience that just chimed very deeply for me ... feeling collywobbles when dealing with vaguely threatening horrible men who haven't done anything so you've no evidence for feeling collywobbles, but you absolutely want to run for the hills; or the fact that a married woman can be having an affair with a man, but even there she needs to protect the veil of sacred motherhood (saying that she doesn't like talking to her kids on the phone visibly disgusts her lover). Lots of moments in this film feel profoundly real.

[IsavedLatin]

Double post!

[Icehaven]

I didn't like this at all. I didn't have any particular expectations of it and mainly watched because of the hype/Oscar buzz, but it left me totally underwhelmed. Tbf I didn't even realise it was set in Greece until near the end, I thought it was in the US, somewhere like Florida so maybe I just wasn't paying attention. So much happened that didn't make any sense to me

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The Italian family being horrible then polite then horrible again, Ed Harris's character seemed pointless, why did Olivia Colman fall over at the end?

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and various other bits that went either over or under my head.

Perhaps as a woman in my 40s who's never wanted kids and never felt as though I should I just didn't understand a lot of the motivations/undercurrents/themes going on, plus I think I was maybe expecting a Death In Venice sort of thing, which this was not.

[Proactive]

I thought they did a great job of building this little world where you're anxiously anticipating something terrible happening any second, but by the end I felt cheated that they hadn't really told me a proper story, even though something incredibly significant happens. I do acknowledge that a childless man isn't really primed to empathise with many of the themes pointed out by others here though, like having an imperfect experience of motherhood, or feeling uneasy around certain types of male behaviour. Also, is it just me or Olivia Colman a little bit overrated? She's fine but I don't really get the fuss over her.

[Icehaven]

Also, is it just me or Olivia Colman a little bit overrated? She's fine but I don't really get the fuss over her.

I think she's been extremely lucky/deft in being offered/selecting roles that suit her. I don't follow her career that closely but I don't think she's done that much out of a narrow-ish comfort zone of slightly eccentric middle class characters and royalty, which is fine but hardly worthy of being considered one of the greatest actresses in years. Winning an Oscar for playing one queen of England then immediately playing another in a hugely popular TV series probably helped, given it makes a good chunk of the viewing world passively think of her as if she actually is the queen.

[dissolute ocelot]

I think she's been extremely lucky/deft in being offered/selecting roles that suit her. I don't follow her career that closely but I don't think she's done that much out of a narrow-ish comfort zone of slightly eccentric middle class characters and royalty, which is fine but hardly worthy of being considered one of the greatest actresses in years. Winning an Oscar for playing one queen of England then immediately playing another in a hugely popular TV series probably helped, given it makes a good chunk of the viewing world passively think of her as if she actually is the queen.

I like her in a lot of things, but she's definitely become the default actor who gets called whenever a certain type of role is needed, as a slightly plain middle-aged Englishwoman with a certain inner strength.  There aren't all that many parts like that so she's hoovered them all up, whereas plenty of other actors could have done them. A film such as Tyrannosaur is very good, but working with great people in a not very showy role, and you can look at what Paddy Considine has done with less exalted actors. I think something like The Favourite was a bit out of her usual range in having to be mad and sexy, so respect for that.

As for her falling down on the beach, no idea about that

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it seemed to be implying she was dying at the start of the film but she seemed fine afterwards. A meaningless hook to draw the audience in.

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Maybe it's in the book?

[mjwilson]

She is

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stabbed in the side during the confrontation with the younger mother. (Sorry, saw it in December and have forgotten everyone's names.) Possibly there was some internal bleeding or something.

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[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Spoiler alert

The death scare causes her to reconnect with her daughters.

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[Bence Fekete]

I liked it but somewhat patchy

Lots of heart, some excellent tense scenes/volte-face, somewhat Lynchian and gnawing. My main gripe is quite pedestrian: I just find using two different actors to play the same role too jarring. Get the feeling Gyllenhaal could make a masterpiece one day though.