Movie Review: The Lost Daughter

It is uncommon for directorial debuts, such as Maggie Gyllenhaal’s strikingly distinctive The Lost Daughter, to be as sure handed as this film is or as well put together in almost every aspect, such as the film’s brilliant lead performance courtesy of Olivia Colman.

While on holiday in Greece, Leda (Colman) appears remarkably attentive to the interactions between a young mother (Dakota Johnson) and her daughter, also vacationing on the same beach. As Leda observes the mother and daughter, as well as their extended family, she reminisces about her own memories of early motherhood and the choices she made that eventually brought her to the place she is today.

These flashbacks show Leda as a young mother, now played by Jessie Buckley, who we quickly see is overwhelmed by the demands that motherhood has thrust upon her as she desperately tries to forge her own path as an academic. Frustrated by her lack of professional opportunities and her husband’s (Jack Farthing) needs coming seemingly first and above her own, Lena begins an affair with a professor (Peter Sarsgaard) and eventually abandons her children to be with him.

This is a narrative that rewards those that take the journey — with all its twists and turns and various character revelations — with a complex and deeply resonant story of unfulfilled ambitions and lingering regrets and resentments towards the situations that thwarted such plans.

Olivia Colman in “The Lost Daughter.” Photo by YANNIS DRAKOULIDIS/NETFLIX © 2021/YANNIS DRAKOULIDIS/NETFLIX © 2 – © 2021 Netflix, Inc.

Gyllenhaal makes her directorial debut with this film, from a script she wrote adapting Elena Ferrante’s novel, and the film showcases the actor’s talents as a remarkable storyteller.  There is a remarkable ease with which Gyllenhaal slides the film between the present and the past and with how she regards Leda’s state of mind throughout. There is a sympathy at work that never takes over the narrative allowing the viewer to reach his or her own conclusions, or opinions, regarding Leda’s actions.

The cinematography courtesy Hélène Louvart beautifully juxtaposes the beauty of the Grecian beach with the seemingly endless second-guessing going on within Leda’s psyche as she attempts to reconcile a variety of life choices. Expertly edited by Affonso Gonçalves, the film effortlessly bounces between the past and present without ever losing the narrative thread in the process.

Although the driving force behind the power of The Lost Daughter is undoubtedly Colman’s powerful yet nuanced performance, the film is also striking for the sheer grandeur of Gyllenhaal’s work as both writer and director. In that respect, the film proves to be a triumph that portends even greater things to come from this gifted filmmaker.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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