Based on Elena Ferrante’s novel by the same name, “The Lost Daughter” stars Olivia Coleman and Dakota Johnson and features Maggie Gylenhaal in her directorial debut. Here’s a quick, mostly spoiler-free review.
What’s It About?
Olivia Coleman plays our main character, Leda Caruso, a 48-year-old professor from Cambridge, Massachusetts who is spending a lengthy amount of time on a Greek island to get some work done.
She rents a flat in the town nearby, forming some type of sexually-tense relationship with the flat owner (played by Ed Harris). And spends most of her time reading and writing on lounge chairs on the beach.
Her peaceful solitude is interrupted one day by the arrival of a boisterous Greek American extended family from Queens. The patriarch and matriarch of the family have all the effontry of people you would expect from Queens. And the group of young men lack all the social graces and awareness you would expect of young kids that just want to start trouble.
But who really captures Leda’s attention is the young single mother of the family, Nina, played by Dakota Johnson. Nina is obviously an outsider of the family. Although she dresses slightly tacky like the rest of the family and her eyes are always covered in heavy makeup, she’s pretty quiet and seems content to spend all of her time with her young daughter.
Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Leda’s odd captivation stems from similarities between this Nina and herself as a young mother. Leda, in fact, has two daughters of her own in their 20’s. We don’t know much about them, and we don’t know the last time Leda talked to them.
But through the same flashbacks, we learn that Leda was really not that great of a mother. She often neglected her children due to selfish behavior and because she was unprepared for the trials of motherhood. And ultimately, in the most selfish act of all, abandons her family in pursuit of a male professor she was having an affair with.
When Nina’s daughter loses her doll, Leda finds it on the beach and also develops an odd fetish with it – dressing it, taking care of it, and sleeping with it. We know there was a doll in her own daughters’ lives so we understand the parallel, and we can think we can understand her creepy fascination with it in the present day.
Ultimately, we see Leda’s journey down the mental rabbit hole as she unravels, confronted by her past through the presence of Nina and her daughter.
Watch It Or Not?
The movie is categorized on Netflix as a thriller, but I definitely wouldn’t label it as such. It’s more of a sad story and cautionary tale about the woes of having children too young if you’re the type of person who’s going to look back on their life regretting all the things they weren’t able to do in their 20’s – like run off with another man.
The cinematography is very choppy and often shot from Leda’s perspective, which definitely lends a creepy feel to the start of the film. But after an hour or so into the movie, you realize nothing creepy is going to happen. It’s really just the unraveling of Leda’s mental state.
I will admit that I am a fan of Olivia Coleman and she did a great job portraying Leda in the film, but overall I found the film lacking in excitement. And where it tries to be emotional and make you feel sympathy for the matriarchs presented, I felt none.
