THE LOST DAUGHTER Review — Maggie Gyllenhaal Arrives With a Flourish as Writer/Director
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s The Lost Daughter review says Maggie Gyllenhaal’s debut as a writer/director is a triumph — one of the year’s best films.
Everyone knows Oscar nominated Maggie Gyllenhaal is a transcendent actress. But it still felt awfully ambitious for her first writing/directing attempts to involve adapting author Elena Ferrante’s many layered novel The Lost Daughter into a compelling screenplay, then casting her film with established talent that includes Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley and Gyllenhaal’s husband Peter Sarsgaard.
I’m ecstatic to report, however, that in her maiden efforts as a writer/director, Gyllenhaal nails it. The Lost Daughter is not only a phenomenal psychological drama, but a monumental accomplishment and one of the best films of the year. Bravo!
The Lost Daughter is the cerebral story of Leda (Colman) a successful British author, who has decided to take a prolonged, seaside vacation in a villa in Greece. She becomes oddly obsessed with a family who is vacationing on the same beach, especially with a young mother (Johnson) and her energetic little daughter.
Through them, Leda revisits her own experiences as a young mother, and how the surprising decisions she made affected everyone’s lives. The frustrations felt by mothers who have dreams beyond simply being a parent are so authentically and poignantly portrayed that some questionable actions can almost be justified…almost. That’s a tribute to the writing, directing and acting.
Gyllenhaal wisely elected not to spell everything out, and leaves many important plot points up the the actors’ and the audience’s own interpretations. Some viewers will find this opaque, while others (myself included) will revel in it and delight in thinking about it and discussing it long after the final credits roll.
The key to enjoying The Lost Daughter is to focus on the fact that the story is being told through the eyes of an unsettled woman, and to take time to enjoy the stunning cinematography by Hélène Louvart, and to appreciate the music by Dickon Hinchliffe.
Allow yourself to be carried away by a beautiful film that needs no violence, car chases, explosions or gore to captivate, and this could well be one of your most rewarding cinematic experiences of the year too.
Rated R
2 Hours, 2 Minutes
If Lisa Johnson Mandell’s The Lost Daughter review compels you to see it, watch in now on Netflix.
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s The Lost Daughter review says Maggie Gyllenhaal’s debut as a writer/director is a triumph — one of the year’s best films.
I have been waiting a year to watch the story they started promoting it a year ago I can absolutely say that I thought it was awful slow hard to understand the vocabulary jerky in filming ending unsatisfying I truly do not understand all the hype that has been put into this movie
Yes. Exactly. A wonderful film.
Thank you for this very good review. For me, there was nothing opaque or strange in the movie, on the contrary. It was mercifully accurate and very honest. Being a working, thinking mother of three grownups, whom I love more than anything in the world, I was absolutely spellbound. And it’s not only about being a mother, but also about being an older woman. The movie is not depressing, but even quite humorous at times, bloody hell, life shows no mercy. 🙂
In German, the film is called „Frau im Dunkeln“ – „Woman in the Dark“. An oddly patronizing title. The protagonist is not in the dark, she‘s alive.
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