This is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal’s first film as director, adapting the novel, The Lost Daughter, a film about one woman’s personal journey that is a deeply felt drama with a strong, lead performance.
A middle aged professor, Leda (Olivia Colman), vacations in Greece and encounters a young mother, Nina (Dakota Johnson), with a little daughter. This triggers her own memories as a young mother (Jessie Buckley) trying to raise two young daughters while working on her doctorate. It’s a painful remembrance of struggling to reconcile motherhood and career that affects her unexpectedly. When Nina’s daughter goes missing, it causes a stir among the extended family, but it is the girl’s doll that carries significant meaning for Leda. As Leda becomes more involved with Nina’s family, underlying tensions surface with unexpected, startling results.
Laced
with minor elements of suspense, it’s primarily a methodically paced character study
about how much we admit to ourselves about our past and what we reveal to
others. It’s all in the details as we
get bits of Leda’s life through multiple flashbacks in which Nina’s family becomes a parallel to Leda’s younger
self, and the doll becomes a metaphor that links things emotionally. The comparisons are obvious, but as the
film probes deeper, a younger Leda is shown as an overwhelmed parent who must
make difficult, heartbreaking choices that culminate in guilt and regret.
With
additional support from Ed Harris and Peter Sarsgaard (Gyllenhaal’s real life
husband), Colman is excellent in a non-flashy,
nuanced performance that could easily earn her Oscar recognition. This honest, open-ended film about life and
its consequences is likely to resonate with
adult females. It’s an impressive
directorial debut that challenges its audience with keen observations without any
sugar coating.
***1/2
of ****stars (add ½* for Colman fans) (on Netflix)
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