‘I’m an unnatural mother...’
Olivia Colman has already secured national treasure status in the UK, and she has also conquered the US after deservingly winning an Oscar for her inspired turn in The Favourite. And yet, she has doing anything but rest on her laurels. Following a devastating turn in The Father, Colman is intimidatingly brilliant again here in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter, but this is very much an ensemble piece…
Leda (Colman) is haunted by dark secrets from her past whilst on a solo beach holiday in a small coastal town in Greece. Once there, Leda must confront the mistakes that she has made amid the struggles of Nina (Dakota Johnson), a similarly troubled but much younger woman, whilst shrugging off the advances of Will (Paul Mescal), a student who spends his summers by the sea and Lyle (Ed Harris), a man with his own demons who lives in Greece permanently. We see Leda’s past brought to life in the form of flashbacks played with panache by Jessie Buckley.
What could have been a straightforward ode to motherhood becomes something else entirely in the hands of Gyllenhaal and her talented cast. Leda’s past comes in powerful waves, short bursts of emotion, but the truth remains elusive, even until the film’s jarring conclusion. A denouement that offers more questions than answers. While this will be frustrating to some, the opportunity to sketch out Leda’s past yourself renders The Lost Daughter as a powerful mediation on motherhood – it is up for debate who the eponymous lost daughter actually is.
Colman is spellbinding as usual but Johnson and Buckley are genuinely just as compelling and Gyllenhaal’s hard hitting script provides many uncomfortable moments that nevertheless enable the audience to learn more about these characters and the various struggles that they face.
The Lost Daughter is an uncompromising glimpse into the realities of motherhood and it is also an incendiary and courageous feat of filmmaking. It’s an utter disgrace that the excretable Don’t Look Up received a Best Picture nomination over this.