The Lost Daughter reviewed by Mark Kermode
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ธ.ค. 2021
- Mark Kermode reviews The Lost Daughter. A woman on a solo holiday becomes fascinated by a young mother and her daughter, casting her mind back to her own relationship with her children.
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Definitely a film that reflects what you bring to it - I was gripped the whole way through and it was so refreshing to see these characters and story lines play out, wish it was more normalised to question whether parenthood is right for everyone. I, like Leda in the film, am a 'selfish' person, but luckily I've come to that conclusion relatively young and can skip motherhood altogether.
Don't deny yourself the joys of motherhood just because you think you're selfish..... From the minute you hold your baby all that will change...... You will experience an overwhelming desire to nurture and protect..... Trust me.... God Bless you.
@@jackieharper5520 As someone who has worked in social work for a number of years I can tell you this is patently untrue.
No please respect others decisions. Not everyone wants or needs to be a mother
The bit in the cinema with the rowdy lads, that Kerm-ayo seem to find so puzzling, is a signifying moment of Leda's internal conflict - the entitled demand for privacy versus the inevitable demands that others, especially men, place on her to interact on their terms. Seen like this, her eruption is completely understandable.
yes I felt it that way too. But I thought it was her intellect clashing with the brazenness of the youths.
Having experienced life with a mentally ill and autistic mother and now as an adult having to listen to her recount her experiences of communicating with other humans in her every day life, which is skewed by her perceptions, which are way off, this movie was like listening to my Mum tell stories for 2 hours. I don't think Leda is a reliable narrator. We aren't seeing things as they happen, we are seeing it all through her eyes - everything that happens in the movie. The dialogue between characters is weird, like someone who doesn't understand people is telling you what she thinks they meant when they were talking to her, not what they actually said. Life can drive women crazy due to the lack of support they get, especially neurodiverse women. They get driven crazy, the world isn't built for them. It's ok to own that no matter how distant Maggie wants to be from a word like "crazy".
I think the thing I loved most about this movie was the way it made me feel for and understand my own mother. When I was much older she told me that she experienced postpartum after I was born and kind of had continued struggles as a single mother for years until my parents did eventually marry. This really helped me see that experience through her eyes which I think is a wonderful gift even if it was difficult and even made me view myself in a harsher light.
Interesting to see such a divided response in the comments. I thought the film was mostly excellent, and I was certain Mark would love it as it featured some of his cornerstones: lots of “show don’t tell” and lots of “inner space” being reflected on screen. I didn’t feel like anything was under explained or confusing except for the deliberately ambiguous ending. It’s a story of a woman looking back with guilt and regret, and driven slightly mad by it. I also loved how her feelings of paranoia mirrored the feelings one gets when travelling alone. You feel like people are staring at you or thinking you’re sad or lonely, so the solo holiday was a perfect setting for the story. So many layered themes to unravel; about societal pressures on women, motherhood, pain travelling through family trees (Buckley intimates that her mother was a monster). Performances immense too. I found it gripping and incredibly thoughtful.
Olivia Colman is definitely one of the best actresses in the world right now.
Please could Mark and Simon do an add-on to this review discussing the film with spoilers (and an appropriate warning given)? Sounds like it would be an even more interesting analysis, as they clearly viewed some plot points differently but felt too restrained to say.
I disagree his opinion that the past and present Leda don't go together. The characteristics actually show quite an consistency as Leda ages. I also don't believe the movie has multiple scopes to interpret because the message and the plot is very straightforward. However, it leaves you with a puzzling feeling to interpret because Leda's personality as well as the pervasive distraction(suspicion) and portrait of the environment surrounding her.
I actually thought the opposite about Jessie Buckley not resembling young Olivia colman. They sort of speak in the same manner .
Indeed, I thought she did an excellent job. I suffer from misophonia and certain sounds really irritate me, unfortunately Olivia Colman's speech pattern is one of my triggers (even though I can appreciate her talent as an actress) Either Jessie Buckley has the same speech pattern or she's a bang on actress, but I thought she was a perfect younger Leda.
My wife reckons that this is a "woman's film", to put it crudely,. and that it's no mystery what it's about i.e. the conflicting, yet absolutist demands put on women regarding family and kids. ("I'm an unnatural mother" couldn't put it more clearly.) Yet here we have two blokes scratching their chins as if it's "Last Year in Marienbad".
Jessie Buckley plays the young Leda so well. Having the mannerisms of Colman.
This is the second review I've seen where they can't see the connection between young Leda and older Leda, and I can't fathom why.
I loved it, such an interesting character study. I would argue that most women have had all of the feelings that are portrayed in this film at some time or another but we perhaps wouldn’t have gone through with our inner thoughts as she does.
Absolutely no surprise that Maggie would end up directing an Interesting film. She’s a brilliant actor and her work is always something to look out for regardless of whether I like them or not.
Wish Netflix would give these films a proper theatrical run. I know everyone is going nuts over Spider-Man but I hope people get to see this one as well or at least seek it out.
Nothing beats that theatrical experience.
Maggie actually comments on Netflix being the best venue for this movie in a Q&A festival interview:
th-cam.com/video/_gQCwyyU-Eg/w-d-xo.html at timestamp 1:06:57.
An 11 minute discussion about the interpretations of the film = it must be good.
Go and look for his review of Sex and the City 2!! There are exceptions to that rule
I think they read way too much into it. they even debate whether the younger version of leda is actually her - all is not what it seems, etc - when it obviously is. open to interpretation but not 'that' open to interpretation; a good film but not 'that' good...
It wasn’t. It really wasn’t.
@@alexfisher1143 Yeah, that’s reading far too much into it. Jessie Buckley was as close as anyone could get to being a young Olivia Colman with acting skills.
This film touches on so many aspects of being human but one major theme (IMO) is the difference by which we judge men who leave their families versus women who do the same. It's one aspect where societal expectations are radically different solely because of the gender of that individual.
Men who leave their families are called deadbeat dads; it's not seen as an admirable trait.
I'm really struggling to understand what everyone else saw in this film that I didn't. She didn't just leave her kids, she psychologically abused them, walked out on them, and then went on to psychologically torture other people's kids. All the while she does this, there is no empathy. It's all about how it makes her feel. This seems to me to be a film about someone with a pretty textbook case of narcissistic personality disorder. Where does the gender commentary come in?
I'm not trying to argue, I'm genuinely interested. (and for context I studied feminism and film at post grad level so I'm used to understanding these things). I'm not used to not agreeing with the feministic analysis of a film and it's bothering me.I finished this film thinking "Wow. What an absolute psycho. Those poor kids." But when I went online to see what other people thought, I find loads of people saying they really identify with her and how it challenges our socially-constructed notions of the mother.
I had hoped to hear about how Jessie Buckley had binge watched all of Peep Show to get a feeling of young Olivia Colman, but apparently not.
I find myself looking for your reviews and your opinions. This is a rare story and a rare movie; I think maybe 2% will understand it. There are Facebook groups for women who struggle with motherhood, and need a safe place to say they don't like it. I'm Olivia Coleman's age so I can look back at my choices with peace. But I cried behind my sunglasses last summer, watching young parents and young moms, because its really just a short window in life. I miss it but I had it and I'm grateful.
You are one of the 2%. Lead us O great one
How pretentious : 2%! It is not exactly a thesis of quantic mechanics. People can understand the movie and found it fastidious, trading on familiar grounds ( mother/daughter relationships, career/motherhood, sex/mariage etc ) and not say anything new. I did not buy Olivia as an academic for one second. In fact the movie itself is pretentious in my view.
Watched this film last night, it held my attention the whole way through, expecting something terrible to be just around the corner. I thought it was fantastic.
If you enjoy watching people giving each other strange looks, having awkward conversations, and cringy dancing to Bon Jovi songs, this is the film for you.
You didn’t mention the ridiculous close up shots. Big waste of time.
So true haha
Big Talking Heads fan, but I didn’t even realise it was them ... “sounds like talking heads!” I thought
I love how they're bring played off for the news and Mark is just like "no! I'm talking about a movie"
This is what I love about films. We all see something different. I was fairly unimpressed with the film tbh. Olivia Colman's acting was brilliant but I felt a sense of unease with the rest of the film and didn't enjoy it. I thought it was kind of obvious that the two actresses were playing the same characters. They had the same names and the same kids?? I'm sorry but Leda acted like a very disturbed woman. Taking the doll and keeping the doll and then offering it back with no real reason for keeping it from a distressed child. Being stabbed but not calling an ambulance or going to a dr?
i guess what i liked about the film is that it definitely keeps you seated. from the moment it was revealed leda secretly stole the doll. i just felt so tense the rest of the movie trying to think of the possible chaos that might happen if the family of “bad people” finds that out
I saw this film at the London film festival and overall I enjoyed the experience but left a bit unsatisfied, perhaps because I had so many questions like this. It did feel a bit too long too for me. Saying, that the acting is great. Colman and Buckley are both very compelling and soaking in to a European beach environment during a pandemic when I’ve not been to one for so long really made me miss them! I think it’ll get a mixed reaction from the general public.
I find it interesting that the original Italian title of the Elena Ferrante novel is "la figlia oscura" which literally means the _dark/obscure_ daughter, not the lost daughter. I wonder why this choice in translation was made (already in the novel, clearly, not just in this movie).
I suppose that's a difficult translation. The obscured or "shadow" daughter does make much more sense once you know the story, but sounds a bit odd in English. Lost daughter sounds more literal but not quite the meaning of the original.
@@Rik77 Yeah, translation is always tricky, I don't know that there is a wrong or right way, I just thought it was interesting to point out. Conversely, the fourth book of the Neapolitan Series by Ferrante "The Story of the Lost Child" is in italian "Storia della bambina perduta" which actually literally means _lost child/daughter._ I find it interesting they have such a similar title in English but not in Italian.
I actually kind of liked ot, because 2 little girls go actually missing, so its like an easter egg. It is about a daughter fééling lost, lost in her identoty, lost in the location shes in, lost in her place in the world, lost in the expectations of motherhood. So shes jot lost in literal sense, but because 2 girls go missing it like encompasses both.
Intense, well acted, cinematically impressive. But it’s uncomfortable as you’re watching a dislikable character making daft decisions amongst other dislikable characters. Like a great journey through beautiful countryside with people you really don’t want to be with to a destination which never materialises.
It reminded me of Joker since it ambiguous about what his diagnosis is. If it was important for Gyllenhaal to show she wasn't crazy, she failed.
I had high expectations for this film and I loved the way it accurately portrayed the challenges of motherhood and that feeling of being totally stifled, even drowned by it to the extent that you no longer exist as a person in your own right. However, in my opinion, the stealing of the doll and the admission to such at the end seemed totally ridiculous, incredulous and added nothing except to make one think that Olivia Coleman was deranged. So my overall impression was that this spoiled an otherwise good story.
I agree it's very disturbing to see a professor losing her conscientiousness.
However, I still believe this behavior of hers is indispensable
Really interesting film. I’m trying to understand what Ed Harris’ character meant. And I suppose the ending was up to interpretation.
I left my only son at two years old and haven’t seen him in three years, I’m getting my life together to make it right, but the film did trigger some serious self-hatred in me
This might sound odd, but your comment feels like a very brave thing to say openly as this is such a sensitive topic. Good luck with it all and I hope things work out for you.
Thanks for this thoughtful review. I was troubled by the film. I wanted to sympathise with Olivia Colman ( you always want to sympathise with whoever she plays in whatever film!) but found I couldn’t. The “lost daughter” in the plot seemed obvious to me - no spoilers- and it does add layers to breaking up of Olivia Colman’s barriers that she has placed between her previous actions and her present tensions. Superb acting from everyone. Agree that the invasion of the mob in the movie was crucial. In the end, there is also an instinctive understanding of the role of “intellect” in adult development. One of Olivia Colman’s issues is that she over intellectualises her response to the issues and incidents in the story.
I find gyllenhaal interesting as a director and it was well acted by colman is all I can say.
Enjoyed the movie. The Lost Daughter is almost the state of all these women. What are their relationships to their children and to the role of motherhood but more importantly how they yearn for their individual freedom and struggle with being a good mother. I felt bad for the daughters in this film because they are children after all and will eventually grow up with the same struggles and a sense of being alone in that struggle like most of the women in this film.
Wow,Dakota Johnson can actually act? That was the biggest surprise of the film
Really interesting segment. Sounds like a fascinating film, although I worry that the story / narrative lacks coherence.
Does it really matter? The older I get, the more I understand that life lacks coherence. This may be a case of appreciating each individual scene as a mini-film in itself.
he had a good interpretation of the movie. I actually thought the movie was trying to find importance and a story. it didn’t succeed . I was going to read the book. Then thought, not. I was totally bored …
Intriguing, atmospheric film with excellent performances but completely loses its pace with the unnecessary flashback scenes featuring Peter Sarsgaard. You just want to go back to Greece. Impressive directorial debut from Maggie G. You could feel the tension throughout.
I actually liked the scenes pf ypunger and leda, because they were not likeable. Ypu wanted tp go back to the beach yes, but that exactly portrays how in distress young leda was
An example of a movie trying to delve into the complex world of how people can be deeply flawed but the issue is that it’s a movie not a documentary. The goal of a movie is to entertain. Even if the subject matter is dark or difficult to watch or explore. The problem is that movies that work have a pay off or resolution at the end. Ok not all movies have that. Some don’t and work. This movie tries to do that but fails in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong. The acting is great. I would not recommend it though.
I thought that Leda's daughter Bianca disappears when she is on the phone to her lover and she has been haunted by this for the rest of her life .When she is on the phone near the beginning to her other daughter the conversation is not animated and she refers her daughter to ask her father something .At the end when she collapses after being stabbed I think she dies and we see her after this talking animatedly to her lost daughter Bianca peeling the orange happy again to be re-united .
Thought it was beautifully shot. But glad I didn't pay money to go to see it.
This film was superb. Dont always agree with Kermode but he summed it up so well
‘Extravagantly handsome’ 🤣🤣
Yes, he is! 😄
I saw Winter Sonata.
psychological baggage will always follow you. There is NO escape ..
can anyone explain to me why this has 96% on rotten tomatoes? at this point I am starting to think they like certain films just for director/books alone. not saying this was the worse movie but its far from good. The fact that it has that high a rating and top ten on Netflix is an over reaction in my opinion. #changemymind
Got about a 40% audience score
I can change your mind very easily: not everything is for everyone. I thought the film was superb. Not because of who’s attached or what it’s based on, but just by virtue of what was presented to me on the screen. People who disagree with you about a film don’t have an ulterior motive, they just saw it differently to you, and that’s fine.
Also - all RT does is aggregate positive reviews, but a positive review can be anything over 3/5 or the equivalent. So if a movie get 50 3/5 reviews it will have 100% RT score.
who is to say what is normal or normal behavior? we find ourselves in uncomfortable reactions about life at times.... who gets create these social metrics?
*Spoiler Alert*
I thought it was refreshing to watch a film (which was beautifully shot) that didn't spell out what was happening and kept you changing your mind throughout. Also is no one going to talk about the ending? Was she dead? It was like she had awoken in heaven , especially considering she could have slowly bled out internally
Jeez, just tell us if it's any good or not.
This is a movie I should like but the timing is wrong for me. Covid all around me I just couldn’t tolerate the tension and uncomfortableness of it all. Maybe next year as I didn’t make it till the end.
Karen at the Beach
Which is always preferable to a dick (or a duck) at the beach.
We spent half the movie unsure if Buckley and Coleman were supposed to be the same person.
wow
I haven't seen it
I like Mark Kermode's reviews. But sometimes i feel he and Simon give too much away. Saying that "the film doesn't really reach a desired point/resolution" plants a seed in the mind and then we perhaps don't enjoy the true unseen experience. They should recommend the film, if it deserves it, first week and discuss in more detail the following week, to allow us the public to have our own feelings.
Only watch this if you are prepared to watch a ‘character study’ that doesn’t really go anywhere. This is unsatisfactory and for me a waste of 2 hours.
As someone who suffered abuse as a child at the hands of a narcissistic mother, I had a very different interpretation of this film. I absolutely hated this selfish, irresponsible character (so brilliantly played by Colman and Johnson). I just felt for these poor kids. I don't care whether parenthood comes naturally to you or not. Parenthood isn't about you, it's about the kids. When you become a parent, you take on a responsibility. You fight hell or high-water to raise your kids in a secure and nurturing environment.
Hey, not teying to patronize you. Ive had a difficult relationship with my parents too, and it took me a long time to forgive them. But im older now, and as someone who has grown, i really think it would help looking at the film more as an internal war in Leda's mind, as an exploration of the societal pressure that mothers have, not dads. Its actually good that this film speaks about this huge taboo. Ofcourde what leda has done will npt be good for her daughters, but its only the awareness that motherhood isnt rainbows and butterflies, that can help make women tge right choice as to want kids or not
The problem is too many children are having children. It would be better if people waited until they'd matured enough for the responsibility. The children always end up paying.
It's really, really not a good film.
I'm sorry but this film is completely unsatisfying..
Great performance from Olivia Coleman which is standard ...
But to many odd unexplained moments that don't add up and it's just boring I'm afraid...very disappointed
FYI Dopesick is in hulu not Disneyplus
It's on Disney+ too
Hulu in the US, Disney+ in Europe I believe.
Disney+ everywhere but the US.
We don’t have Hulu in the UK.
I was gonna say, "Dopesick" doesn't seem like a Disney Plus type of movie....lol
3/5 for me. It's a coming-to-terms-sploitation drama, but instead of creating an interesting main character or an intriguing conflict, the film meanders around her reminding herself that she's selfish and wasn't cut out for parenthood, and the most unique thing it has to say is "oh yeah well sometimes men abandon their children, too!". We Need To Talk About Kevin (the book, not the film adaptation) pulled off the "unfit mother / unreliable narrator" angle brilliantly, whereas this story felt pointless by the end.
Talk about overrated. How on earth did Maggie G. get a GG Director nod for this. Really?
If anything it should get a Golden Globe for Best Close-ups
Sorry, didn't enjoy this film.....Olivia brings real gravitas as usual, it tried to be too intellectual but lacked any real meaning to me
Yer they didn't get it lol
Jessie Buckley was great. The movie however boring, dull and way to long… would have been better as a short story and better director
This movie is pretty awful. The Olivia Colman character is right up there with mommy dearest. She truly hates her 2 daughters and has a real mean streak. The scene I lost my ability to find this story meaningful was when she refused to kiss her daughters boo boo despite her daughters tears and begging for her mom to kiss her boo boo. One final thought though is I can see how much harsher our culture judges women and mothers. When those hikers came and the husband announced that he has 2 kids but they are living with their mother while he hikes the European countryside and not in his kids lives, we don’t judge him nearly as much as the selfish mothers. Interesting.
Plus there is no such thing as a unnatural mother. That is just rediculous. It's black and white thinking pattern. Leda is not that stupid.
No but its what SOCIETY would see like an unnatural mother, because its society that box mothers inblike this
Hated it
I don't like this film, it makes me angry. I don't think Leda is a reliable character it's very fictional and they shouldn't portray just ugly side of the story. It's totally biased. What about Leda persuit her career and become a professor which teach her daughters that women can acheive success in terms of career? Children are not that fragile, they can be resilient, if you want them to be. I belive Leda loves her daughter deeply, but the guilt portrays in the film is not realistic. (Overprotective and exaggerating how volunerblae the kids and how selfish the mother) A woman can have many roles, not just a mother. Leda must have gain so much from attaining academic success and the movie never talk about how that have inspired Leda's life. This is a dishonest film and completely misled.
Olivia Coleman dies at the end.
You mean the beginning.
@@joshknightfall Good one!
Can you die from being stabbed with a hat pin to the far right? My interpretation was that she lived to continue looking at people dolefully.
@@TomRipley7350 The orange is the giveaway.
@@Golf05 😅The giveaway for what?
This movie was a boring piece of trash I dunno what the hype is behind this movie
Very slow moving, becomes tedious as the film pans out, could have been much better
The flashback scenes were too numerous and tiresome. I think the film could have been tighter and 15 minutes shorter.
The film is absolutely awful. Don’t waste 2 hours
@@butterflymoon6368 Nothing really happens and none of the characters are believable or likeable. No character development and no satisfactory conclusion. Oliva Coleman can be relied on to be good crier and heavily emotive, but that's about it. Over rated.
@@mikehurst4002 plenty of great films have characters you wouldn't describe as "likeable" if you knew them in real life, but those films manage to make them and their story interesting. That doesn't happen here. The main character spends most of the movie staring at other people and reminding herself "I hated being a mom", mostly through poorly-shot and poorly-edited flashbacks.
Simon looks completely disinterested?
Thats what i you got id say he sounded fascinated by the film and so did Mark.
*uninterested
That's just Simon lol
Boring melodrama, the usual dowdy performance from Coleman ( even the queen had that farmers twang ffs ). Not embarrassed to say I only watched an hour.
A really boring film. Also film critics should not exist. We can decide if we like a movie or not.
Olivia Colman is definitely one of the best actresses in the world right now.