By: Andrew Wing

The Lost Daughter is a 2021 psychological drama film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal (older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal) in her feature directorial debut, based on the novel of the same name by Elena Ferrante. The film stars the Academy Award winning Olivia Colman (The Favourite, The Father, The Crown) in the lead role, and also features Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades film series, The Peanut Butter Falcon), Jessie Buckley (Fargo series, I’m Thinking of Ending Things), Paul Mescal (Normal People), Dagmara Domińczyk (Succession), Jack Farthing (Spencer - see my full review), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Haunting of Hill House, The Invisible Man), with Peter Sarsgaard (Dead Man Walking, An Education) whom is married to director Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ed Harris (Apollo 13, The Truman Show, Westworld) in supporting roles.

In the film, the lead character, Leda (Colman in the present & Buckley in the past), discloses that she is named for the woman in the W. B. Yeats poem “Leda and the Swan”, which Yeats based on the Leda story of Greek mythology.

The Lost Daughter had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2021, where Gyllenhaal won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay. It began a theatrical limited release in the United States on December 17, 2021, prior to streaming on Netflix on December 31, 2021.

THE GOOD

This movie really snuck up on me. 2021 was just jam-packed full of movies and I just totally forgot that this was hitting Netflix on the final day of 2021. The film has been receiving widespread acclaim from critics obviously praising the three lead actresses in it which is expected, but most of the acclaim has gone to Maggie Gyllenhaal in her directorial debut. Everyone knows her brother Jake who is one of the best actors in the industry today, but Maggie is also a very talented actress in her own right. She is definitely most known for playing Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight opposite Christian Bale, but some other great performances of hers include Secretary, Crazy Heart, Won’t Back Down, and Frank. But now she is in the director’s chair, and keep reading to find out how I think she did in her directorial debut.

I think she did just about as good as a first time director can do. I was very impressed to say the least with every decision she made here. What’s more impressive is the fact that she wrote the screenplay for it too which is adapted from a novel of the same name. As I said earlier, Gyllenhaal won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, and after watching, it made complete sense why she and the film did. The adapted screenplay here is very good. I will discuss more later how I didn't really like the main character, but nonetheless I was impressed that Gyllenhaal was more worried about making the character relatable as opposed to making her likable. There are a ton of films about parenthood out there, but The Lost Daughter is different from anyone I have ever seen. This movie, thanks to its screenplay, tackles the downsides of parenting and the toll that it can take on someone with brutal honesty. It is definitely one of the better screenplays of the year, and I would predict with confidence that Gyllenhaal will get a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

A screenplay is nothing without a talented cast, and this film has three of the bigger actresses from the past few years headlining it and they all showed up and showed out by giving some of the best performances of the year. Starting with Colman because she is the star of the show, she continues to deliver at the peak of her game. She is undoubtedly one of the best actresses in the business right now, and she was just superb in this. What’s most impressive about Colman as an actress is that everything she does feels completely natural. That even goes for when she’s contemplating stuff from her character’s past that might have zero relatability to her personal life. She just knows how to present every emotion on her face and she gives us easily one of the best performances of 2021. You can lock her in for a Best Actress nomination and following the recent surprises in this category from other awards bodies, you never know, she could even win. She’s that good!

As for the supporting women, Dakota Johnson gave what I would say is the best performance of her career. She found a way to be both very subtle yet still extremely expressive which is a hard thing to do and I would love to see her get a Best Supporting Actress nomination. It’d be pretty amazing if she did because just a couple years ago she was constantly tabbed as being one of the worst actresses following the Fifty Shades trilogy. It’s just cool to now see how talented an actress she is after being removed from those terrible films that somehow my mom liked. Anyways, the actress probably more likely to get nominated is Jessie Buckley. She brings a lot of pain, anger, and frustration to her character and her performance really surprised me.

I also really liked the look of the film and how it was shot. I loved how Gyllenhaal used a lot of close ups. The close ups were aided by the film’s aspect ratio so the face just took up the entire screen. I don’t know, it just added another level to the film for me as we got to see these women repressing their sadness through these close-ups. The cinematography by Hélène Louvart was really good too, and it was shot in Greece which is one of the most beautiful places in the world, so I’m sure that helped in terms of visuals!

THE BAD

There is no denying that I liked the film overall. However, there were two things that just kept me from loving it. One, I didn’t really like Colman’s character in the end. Don’t get me wrong, I loved her performance, but the character itself was one that I had a hard time rooting for. It’s weird because the film doesn’t really tell us what to think or feel about her, and the ending doesn’t help us answer that question. Speaking of the ending, I wasn’t in love with how the story was resolved. There is one storyline where Colman’s character does something very odd and I thought for how much time they spent on it, we would’ve got a better resolution to why she did what she did. I know the movie is one of those “show-not-tell” kind of films, but I just wanted a better explanation I guess.

Also, while it was very clear what was at the core of this film, I don’t think I grasped every single thing it was going for just given the fact that it is slower and there are a lot of moving parts. For example, there were some other supporting characters that we spend a lot of time with and we do not get anything close to a payoff or even a conclusive moment that wrapped them up. That said, it just makes me want to watch it again to see if I can pick up on anything I might have missed. This is definitely one of those films that could get even better on subsequent viewings.

THE VERDICT

The directorial debut from Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter, did not disappoint as we got three of the year’s best performances from Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley. I didn’t think the end was the greatest and there were just some other things I wanted resolved a little better, but it is still an extremely thought provoking psychological drama that grapples with some emotionally complex feelings that will warrant another viewing.

It’s pretty crazy saying this, but Maggie Gyllenhaal has already really put herself on the map as somebody to look out for, and I just can’t wait to see where she goes from here!