THE LOST DAUGHTER

Reviewed by Sunchica Unevska

Towards “The Lost Daughter”, directed and written: Maggie Gyllenhaal; starring: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, Paul Mescal, Peter Sarsgaard; photography: Helene Louvart; USA/Great Britain/Greece 2021

The Unbearable Feeling of Guilt

How to paint inner feelings? How to capture the sensitive state of someone who struggles with his emotions for a long time, someone who has a feeling of failure or guilt, someone who can’t justify or accept their own actions, someone who constantly condemns himself, someone who reacts strangely and does not know why? How to show it on film?

It seems that the young director Maggie Gyllenhaal in her debut, “The Lost Daughter”, is faced with a great challenge, with something that is really very difficult to show visually, especially if you approach it all directly, without beautification and without any indirect allusions or games, through which the pain could be somewhat more easily captured. But no, Gyllenhaal adheres to the novel by the Italian writer Elena Ferrante, entitled “The Dark Daughter”, exactly as it is conceived, not going through the film, but much more through the psychological game. Because of that, the film can leave you at a distance, but of course, it doesn’t lose its provocativeness and restlessness, which are constantly present.

Maybe, because of that Maggie Gyllenhaal won the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay, as it's not that simple at all. Indeed, this film is different, much more introverted, non-communicative, and at times even vague or seemingly unfinished, yet it manages to challenge you and make you reconsider, to create a sense of dissatisfaction and even revolt. The author manages to bring us that unusual state of the main character, Leda, in a very disturbing way, making us constantly wonder what Leda really is. Olivia Coleman's choice to play Leda is exceptional, as she bears so well the duality of the character, which at the same time looks so pleasant and so uncomfortable. Incredibly, and the nominations which Colman received, as well as the actress Jesse Buckley, who plays Leda as a junior, are completely justified.

Unusual and effective is the choice of the novelist Ferrante, and of course Maggie Gyllenhaal, to be a film and a story that takes place on the beach, which at first glance seems like something what is easier, fun, ethereal, soaked in beauty and carefree, although in fact, it is quite the opposite. After all, such an environment gives to this film even more weight, because the burden it carries is somehow much more stressed when you are surrounded by such beauty and lightness, and which don’t even touch you. That's why Maggie Gyllenhaal, even when she paints landscapes, is quite reserved, we somehow don’t have a picture of all that nature and charm of that beautiful island, or even when we have, we don’t experience it on that way. The other contrast is in the family that comes to the beach whose peace and quiet Leda enjoys so far, which is numerous, noisy, extroverted, too intrusive, completely different from the inner world of Leda, who will still be “involved” in those events that she ignores at first, when she sees the young mother Nina and her relationship with her three-year-old daughter.

Suddenly, not only is her peace and desire to work on this island disturbed, but events will bring her back to that repressed restless in herself from which, in fact, can’t get rid. She is a university professor and translator, what as a student wanted to do so much, but as a young mother of two daughters it brought her to an impossible situation. A situation that will take her to such extremes, which will mark her life forever. She will be able to do what she wants, but she will never be able to escape from the restlessness inside her.

Leda, named after Yates's song “Leda and the Swan”, which he based on Greek mythology and which she discovers in the film, somehow seems to carry that story in herself , a story that has many versions, a story which incorporates duality in different ways. That vague duality, when you thinks differently, but behaves quite the opposite. Jesse Buckley is also great in the film, so suggestive in expressing the intolerance of what is happening to her. She loves her daughters, but the burden is too great, the desires and wishes are completely different, the clash with reality is even more difficult. Leda will decide to chase her dream, but it is something that, despite all the success, despite all the books and stories, can’t bring her peace.

Young Nina and the three-year old child who is constantly seeking her attention, will remind Leda of everything she went through as a very young mother, who was often alone with them, and persistently tried to finish college. That strong urge in her and the questions to which she has never found an answer, are something that is constantly here, something that can’t be dealt with, something that still needs to be talked about, to be reconsidered. And then, like a torrent, the memories come to Leda, her feelings, her effort, her personal struggle, her longings ... In flashbacks, we follow her story in parallel, which will take her through some dark corridors, as she herself experiences them, of which she is unlikely to return, at least not completely.

That's why that monologue when she sits down to dinner with the young assistant at the resort, when she begins to talk uncontrollably about herself and her mother, about the children Bianca and Martha, about how much one of them took all her strength and the other lived in her own world... Hence, that intensified kindness with the hotel caretaker; that’s why those vague events when a cone leaves a mark on her body, when she sees that unusual cricket on the pillow next to her; hence that unreasonable behavior, even bizarre with the little girl's doll. Suddenly Leda seems to be haunted by ghosts, how much she runs away, how much she is scared, so everything around her becomes weirder and more obscure, so many boundaries move, that is why you can’t understand her, nor identify with her inner storm of emotions. And in fact, she can’t do that either.

Yes, the film goes in a completely different direction and the viewer is surprised, because this is a different achievement. This is not a film that shows, but a film that explores, this is not a film that tells a story, but the hidden, distant story in it tries to define the undefined, to see and recognize those contours that frighten her so much. Leda knows how to really surprise with her behavior, but she can surprise and herself by looking for what, in fact, she can’t face. Maggie Gyllenhaal takes a completely different path and raises a number of questions, about motherhood, about love, about prejudice, about expectations, about the relationship between people when they faced with the unknown, with an energy that is all the more attractive as it is more obscure, and even repulsive.

It's really hard to bring such a film that has both - the good and the bad, the weird and the ordinary, the attractive and the bizarre, but not where you expect them to be. At times the film is very well captured, effectively, but at times you feel missed and unfinished. Maybe it's about Gyllenhaal's experience, which is definitely offset by Colman's phenomenal acting, but also Buckley. It’s not a big movie, but it’s certainly something different, something provocative and elusive, in which anyone and no one can be found. Maybe that's its size. However, “Lost Daughter” is a movie that makes you re-examine yourself, not only for the same things, but for everything in which you can’t recognize yourself. There is some life mystery in it, at times more successful, at times not, but certainly worth seeing, because, like it or not, can be unexpected part of everyone's life.