The Lost Daughter

I'm an unnatural mother...

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VoR

VoR

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Maggie Gyllenhaal's Oscar-tipped directorial debut, starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson and Jessie Buckley.



First of all, the trailer massively mis-sells this as some kind of Hand That Rocks The Cradle style thriller, which it isn't at all. Once I'd gotten past that initial wave of disappointment, I did really enjoy it. It's quite slow and meditative, but the performances are strong and it has a consistent sense of unease and creeping disaster. At times Colman's performance reminded me of Nicole Kidman in Birth - she's capable of expressing so much with just the most barely perceptible movements of her face. The cinema scene in particular is subtle but breathtaking.

I recommend it highly, and I wouldn't be angry if Colman picked up a second Oscar. She's sure to be nominated.
 
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Loved this, I had read that the trailer was selling it wrong so I wasn’t disappointed.

Olivia Coleman is just so good and she plays such a difficult character. It also made Greece look amazing, I want to go on a vacation just to read and walk around.
 
I really liked this too. I went in cold so just let it wash over me which felt perfect, though at one point when she was fiddling with the doll I was worried it was going to morph into some kind of mob thriller (she's going to find it's stuffed with cocaine :D) but luckily that didn't come to pass.

Colman was completely beguiling and gripping and I loved how you never knew which way she was going to swing. Her final scene with Dakota Johnson said everything with so little. A shoe-in come Oscar time, though I wonder what voters will make of such a chilly film.

I loved Dakota Johnson. She's got the Kristen Stewart air of detached blankness which strangely draws you in. Ed Harris was having a lovely time, wasn't he?

A couple of quibbles:

1. the soundtrack was great but strangely became overwhelming (and naff) in the scene where she leaves the daughters and completely overegged the pudding when it didn't need it with some awful banshee ballad powering under the dialogue. Weird.

2. Jessie Buckley was fairly unbearable, I rankled every time she came on screen though and could have done with far less of her. It may just have been the character but I had the rotten feeling it was her herself.

3. The final beach conversation was a bit too cute after all that had transpired.

I still can't believe Olivia Colman was Debbie Doonan - it didn't click for YEARS :D
 
Yes, the cake scene was terrifying. I wanted more from her.

I keep mulling over the ending and the ambiguity of whether it was real or not. And if it was, could her conversion last?
 
VoR said:
Loved Dakota, but I thought Dagmara Dominczyk was fantastic too. Her scenes with Colman crackled with passive-aggressive tension.
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She was unrecognizable from her Succession character.

I loved the soundtrack.
 
Christian said:
Yes, the cake scene was terrifying. I wanted more from her.

I keep mulling over the ending and the ambiguity of whether it was real or not. And if it was, could her conversion last?
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Apparently the ending changes one word from the novel which really changes the whole thing

The daughters say: “Mama, what are you doing, why haven’t you called? Won’t you at least let us know if you’re alive or dead?”

Leda is moved and responds: “I’m dead, but I’m fine.”

This is an interesting adaptational choice from Maggie Gyllenhaal who penned the screenplay for the film – as Leda states she is “dead” in the novel but “alive” in the film.
 
I managed a half hour of this or maybe a touch more, but it was just so bleak and uncomfortable. i'm sure it's a good film but I don't find portraits of relentlessly self destructive people to be particularly entertaining.
 
Jark said:
I managed a half hour of this or maybe a touch more, but it was just so bleak and uncomfortable. i'm sure it's a good film but I don't find portraits of relentlessly self destructive people to be particularly entertaining.
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No Lars Von Trier movies for Jarkette then.
 
Suedey said:
That reminds me - I've not seen The House That Jack Built!
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Neither have I! I've got it sat on the shelf too.

I've just spotted the full length version of Nymphomaniac on Bluray for £7 so that's on its way now.
 
Christian said:
Neither have I! I've got it sat on the shelf too.

I've just spotted the full length version of Nymphomaniac on Bluray for £7 so that's on its way now.
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I'm pretty sure I have/had that.
Lars Von Trier movie marathon weekend. Perfect for this dreary weather! :disco:
 
I'm a huge Ferrante fan and I have to say that Gyllenhaal and Olivia did a really good job with it. It's meant to be very disturbing and almost thrillery, even though the subject material isn't.
 
This was so painfully middle-class it only came alive when Dakota stuck the needle. Best thing about the whole film was how it made Greece look AWFUL and UNAPPEALING in a DON'T LOOK NOW sort of way.
 
This was SUCH a weird film for me.

I loved the scenes of Olivia Colman being abused by pine-cones, young people in cinemas and the general surrounding evils of GREECE - and Olivia Colman was fantastic (and the Nicole Kidman in Birth reference above is ON POINT). However I HATED HATED HATED the flashback scenes, which were far too many, and could have easily been disposed of with some well-written dialogue (and given us more scenes of Olivia's TERRIBLE TIME instead :disco: ) and the scene mentioned above where young Olivia leaves her kids with the awful song played VERY LOUDLY over the top was a frankly terrible piece of cinema :D

On a personal level, I really struggled to relate to a lot of the themes and subjects of the main plot being a gay man with less than zero interest in having children. But that's ok, everything doesn't need to be TAILOR MADE for me :eyes:

In short it reminded me of a lot of latter-career Glenn Close films: fantastic acting performance, film around it was a BIT SHIT
 
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