• Literally Anything: Movies
  • Film Index
  • The Criterion Collection
  • Collections
  • Academy Award Nominees
  • About
  • Links and Contacts
  LITERALLY ANYTHING: MOVIES

Updates

The Lost Daughter (2021)

3/25/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
R for just an overall bleak and miserable tone.  There's sex, violence, language, and drinking.  Honestly, there's absolutely nothing wholesome in this film, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  It's just that Leda has some baggage to her that often touches on elements of The Awakening.

DIRECTOR:  Maggie Gyllenhaal

I'm going to put myself out there and be vulnerable.  I'm going to hate myself after writing this, but early 20s me had a real artistic crush on Maggie Gyllenhaal.  Yeah, let that sink in.  She was just so dark and moody.  I would imagine her drinking coffee at a diner at 3:00 am, a little drunk and smoking a cigarette and yelling about me about how boring I was.  In light of this revelation, I probably have more self-esteem issues that I have to analyze, but that's the truth. Now, I didn't know that Maggie Gyllenhaal had anything to do with this movie until it ended.  But the first thing I thought was, "Of course!  It all makes so much sense."  

Yeah, I'm going to agree that it's probably not Best Picture worthy.  I'll support the Academy when it comes to not giving it the nomination.  But I do agree with the nominations that it did get. If I, Tonya is the gold standard for snubbed films, The Lost Daughter is no I, Tonya.  But what it is fascinates me.  It's the piece as a whole.  Part of it is the ambiguity of the movie.  Another part is the performance and the cynicism behind life as a whole. But maybe the most joyful thing, for me, is that I have no idea who I can recommend this movie for.  It hits my buttons really hard, despite the fact that it didn't go places that I wanted it to go and that at times, it's a little boring.  Maybe some of that comes from the idea that I really bond to unlikable characters.  (This also supports the notion that I want to be friends with someone who humiliates me in a diner at 3:00 am.) But it has a whole vibe that is crushing.  And the crazy thing --the absolute craziest thing --is that I hate The Awakening.  I find it abhorrent, despite the fact that I'm constantly trying to be a better feminist.  That book frustrates me and triggers me so hard.  Yet this film? I'm all on board.

A good chunk of that feeling comes from the notion that The Lost Daughter never pretends that Leda has the answers.  She never has her moment where she can justify her behavior because something.  I mean, it's not to say that she's not relatable.  I don't think I've ever bonded more with a movie than when young Leda is lying on the floor, allowing herself to be whacked in the head by her child, just so she could have a moment's rest.  I don't know Gyllenhaal's background, but there are some aggressive parent vibes that people don't talk about that often.  There's always the hilariously burned out parent in movies, but the real burned out parent is that scene.  There's nothing funny about it, but I have also felt such an intense kinship with this moment.  But because The Lost Daughter is so bleak and pushing boundaries, we have Leda handle that scene differently than I would.  Leda has a lot shorter of a fuse than the rest of us do.  While Gyllenhaal allows us to view Leda at her best and Leda at her worst, the film really focuses on those lows more than anything else.

And I keep coming back to The Awakening.  I mean, the crux of the story is the notion that her spouse comes across as neglectful of her needs, so she abandons her family for a long period of time. Joe is kind of undefined for the film.  While Kate Chopin definitely makes the Monsieur Pontellier the antagonist of the film, there's something kind of sympathetic about Joe.  Yeah, he's missing some key cries for help, but they both seem so young and naive.  It's never out of selfishness that he neglects Leda.  It's just that he can't often see the forest through the trees. Leda's breakdown is almost to the point that she probably should never have been a mother. Gyllenhaal never really spells that out for us, but that's because Gyllenhaal is doing something really smart with the story.  The film lets us read into moments with our own lenses.  There are beats that can be read in multiple different ways and they are all right and they are all wrong.

Leda's selfishness manifests itself from basic human conditions. She wants to be valued as an adult with intellect.  She wants to be considered sexy by celebrity, even small time celebrities like Hardy.  This all encapsulates itself in the need for everyday being different, which is definitely not the case when you have a family with kids.  There's a sense of sameness that becomes poison.  Leda swears that she loves her kids, but resents them for stealing her life.  The irony of this is that adult Leda embraces a sense of sameness.  Colman's portrayal of the aging Leda is depressed with the sameness, yet she keeps returning to the same beach chair and the same location for her working vacation, which oddly seems devoid of any productive work.  It's the notion that we tell ourselves that we are the victims of our own martyrdom.  Leda keeps finding ways to inject drama into her life, which makes her seem more sympathetic than she is.  She keeps this doll that would make the daughter be less dramatic.  If Leda returned the doll quickly, it would sever her connection to this toxic family on the beach.  Heck, they would probably even celebrate her more than they do for finding Nina's daughter.  

But Leda needs that victimhood to a certain respect.  She returns to the family after three years.  Her nuclear moment of running away with Hardy loses its edge, causing her to make waves again.  She creates this antagonism with this family by being intentionally caustic while simultaneously befriending them.  There's a certain element of paradoxical behavior with Leda and Nina's family.  She provokes them when it comes to the beach chair.  Sure, Leda is in the right. She absolutely should keep that beach chair.  But society understands that when someone asks for something, we probably should give it to them if we want to be accepted as a good person.  And there is so much poking of the bear that Leda actually comes across as somewhat insane.  Her caressing of the doll, polluted with sludge coming out of its mouth, seems terrifying.  There are moments of what seem like lost time.  The doll isn't where she remembers putting it.  The fruit is rotting.  Despite the fact that Leda isn't exactly the narrator, she has the traits of an unreliable narrator when it comes to solving the mystery of her.

It's a gorgeous film that graciously leaves me with more questions than answers.  Sometimes I hate this.  Sometimes I love this. If I had to rate it objectively, I would find it a well-performed piece that is incredible frustrating.  But I also like incredibly frustrating sometimes, so a round of applause all around for The Lost Daughter.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Film is great.  It can challenge us.   It can entertain us.  It can puzzle us.  It can awaken us.  

    It can often do all these things at the same time.  

    I encourage all you students of film to challenge themselves with this film blog.  Watch stuff outside your comfort zone.  Go beyond what looks cool or what is easy to swallow.  Expand your horizons and move beyond your gut reactions.  

    We live in an era where we can watch any movie we want in the comfort of our homes.  Take advantage of that and explore.

    Author

    Mr. H has watched an upsetting amount of movies.  They bring him a level of joy that few things have achieved.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Literally Anything: Movies
  • Film Index
  • The Criterion Collection
  • Collections
  • Academy Award Nominees
  • About
  • Links and Contacts