Maggie Gyllenhaal makes an impressive directorial debut, adapting “The Lost Daughter” from a favorite novel. Casting the always impressive Olivia Colman (“The Favorite,” “The Father”) in the lead role was a helpful, but even the smaller roles, cinematography and camera angles are executed with the hand of a seasoned pro. The subject matter of the film itself resembles a recent Gyllenhaal star turn from “The Kindergarten Teacher.”
Colman plays Leda, a respected professor on a summer beach holiday. As she gradually gets to know the local families there, she finds herself reflecting back on her own family life, the hardships and choices she made as a young mother herself.
It’s the type of film where nothing really happens in the present, but we find out through Leda’s flashbacks some of what happened in the past. “The Lost Daughter” is a unique take on motherhood that we may not be used to seeing on screen, and it may even make some of us uncomfortable, but it’s not criminal or even immoral on most levels.
As a young mother, Leda is portrayed by Jessie Buckley (“I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” “The Courier”), a woman at the beginning of her career, struggling to balance the demands of her children and husband and still prioritize herself. This dichotomy isn’t a new concept, but whether on screen, in novels or in society, it’s familiar to women who are commonly expected to dismiss these thoughts or fight through them as though we are all born natural mothers and that’s that.
We observe Leda in both of these phases of her life, constantly challenged to assert her own personhood, battling guilt and discomfort with what it means to be a mother. She may make atypical choices, but men who make similar choices are usually held to a different standard – or none at all – and it certainly doesn’t make her deserving of this year’s “Mommie Dearest – Worst Screen Mom of the Year” award from the Women’s Film Critic Circle (look it up) just because she found she values independence over societal roles and expectations.
It does make me wonder what path Gyllenhaal’s career will take now however, maybe a remake of “The Awakening” or a long-awaited adaptation of “The Yellow Wallpaper” perhaps? As a woman and mother myself, I’d welcome that continued exploration.
Simonie Wilson, whose love of movies began as a child in the ’70s going to drive-ins with her family, has been a resident of the Northland for more than a decade. She is a board member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle and a Women Film Critics Circle member. She can be reached online at www.facebook.com/RedVineReviewer.
