I was rewatching Murder on the Orient Express the other night (Death on the Nile is coming) and I couldn’t believe that Olivia Coleman has a small and practically silent part in it, filmed just before she blew up in a big way in The Favourite. She now finds herself on everyone’s A-list, and headlining this movie today. Cheeky; you never know who is going to be the next star, do ya?
Leda (Olivia Coleman) sits on holiday on a beach, and it’s peaceful, until a large and rowdy extended family renting their annual villa nearby, make their presence felt. However, Leda is not easily moved, and the young mother Nina (Dakota Johnson) notices her, intrigued in her way. During a commotional day, Nina’s daughter Elena (Athena Martin) goes missing, and the beach rallies together to find her. Later, Elena’s doll goes missing too. The movie follows Leda, as she co-mingles with her holidaying compadres, and remembers back to when her own children were growing up.
My minor expectations for this movie were put into motion by a skilfully cut trailer that makes The Lost Daughter look like another mysterious Gone Girl, where something sinister will leave us unsure of who to trust. I thought that’s where we were heading, and the first quarter plays like that, but The Lost Daughter is really very cautious, introverted in setting itself up. There comes a point where I had a thought that if we are truly going down that path, Leda hasn’t done much to show herself to be all too strange really, until she makes an awkward pass at Lyle (Ed Harris), and I was like, ‘what was that?’. Even for a lack of truly understanding what this movie wanted to be for the longest time, I was fascinated by it, and at any given moment, I had no idea in which direction it was likely to go. You think there might be clues in the past, indicating a lurking nature from Leda, towards Nina and Elena, but all you need to know comes through one utterance from Leda, that sums up her attitude completely; ‘children are a crushing responsibility’. The Lost Daughter is billed as a psychological drama, and I think that description fits it perfectly; in the end, it’s not a thriller, but a drama, about Leda’s psychology. Ultimately, I think Leda holds a strong belief that she’s entitled to what she wants, has figured out how to get it, and can prove volatile if things don’t go to plan. That mentality doesn’t lend itself to the devotion and chaos that come naturally with raising children, where some women can adapt effortlessly. In the end, I don’t think the movie judges Leda harshly, staying an objective observer to Leda’s manner of humanity and womanhood, that can seem frightful or alien because it’s not often explored; nor is it productive for the betterment of a community, and that’s usually hard to accept as well.
But most importantly, Olivia Coleman is truly in control of this character, like you’d think she’s known her intimately for a number of years. Coleman’s is rarely a loud performance, where actually, it’s Jessie Buckley, playing the younger version of Leda, who really has the sordid, highly vulnerable material, allowing us to see the intimate life Coleman’s older Leda once led. There isn’t a high percentage of the movie that deals with Nina getting to know Leda, but those scenes between Johnson and Coleman are electrifying. When Nina first notices Leda, it’s hard to explain exactly how she watches her; like a snake with an inquisitive look – curiously, but like she’d cut your throat if she sensed anything off. Building my familiarity with Dakota Johnson over the years, it’s clear she can be wild or responsible, and she takes a lot of very sexy roles. In The Lost Daughter, she combines all three elements; whilst she’s still very desirable, this is the first time I’ve seen her accompany that with motherhood, and she fits the part exquisitely. The three lead actresses complement each other proudly, with talents like Ed Harris, Peter Skarsgård, Dagmara Domińczyk and Paul Mescal as the hotel’s serviceman, filling in the edges around them.
Trying to figure out where this movie may lead is impossible, but for as tense as The Lost Daughter seems, it’s quite toothless, while the doll and the vengeful Greek family keep a sense of danger alive. In the end, I actually found The Lost Daughter resembled something more like Let Them All Talk, in that it’s clearly about something, and has something meaningful to say, but it will only communicate in precise strokes of commonplace holiday dialogue and fare, and broad symbology, like the doll and rotten fruit. I think the movie is clearly about motherhood; the sense of the constant attention needed to be a mother, when there’s so many other things a person may need, or want, to accomplish in life, like passion and education. I think when Leda says it was amazing to leave, with heavy tears running down her face, she’s responding to the internal responsibility that a person with children must feel, despite other desires. In the moment, I’d have said that the scene in the cinema is the most revealing, but looking back on the movie, it’s the image of Coleman’s Leda eating her ice-cream, while Buckley’s ice-cream melts in the past, that is the most telling. But look, I say this knowing that I am not a woman, or a mother, or a guardian to children, experiencing the bliss and drudgery of child rearing day-to-day – I’m merely describing what I think I see from the other side of the fence.
If anything, The Lost Daughter is a little too long, but for her directorial debut, Maggie Gyllenhaal has weaved together a complicated story, and delivered something that feels fresh and quaint in its own way. It’ll stick with you, and I’ve thought about it for days since. A very enjoyable movie.
4.5
Leave a Reply