The Lost Daughter (2021), a film which depicts the responsibility and challenges of motherhood. A college professor is forced to remember her unsettling past after meeting a young woman and her daughter while on holiday in Italy. She grows obsessed with the woman as she sees herself in her mistakes and faces her own past.
Described as a psychological thriller, we can assume there are some unexpected plot twists and potentially a few shocking reveals. I can assure you, this film will not make you feel much, to watch some great acting performances I’d recommend but to see a compelling narrative with grilling characters and edge of the seat moments, this is nothing of the sort. It’s rare I finish a film with very little to say, especially when it’s two hours long but The Lost Daughter (2021) was disappointing and lack lustre. There were a lot of dead end moments that didn’t seem to feel necessary and I wanted answers. I think if we were given more about Leda (Colman), if we knew her full story and if we knew what she was capable of from the beginning, the tone would have changed and I could have invested more in her character.
Confronting the question of what it is to be a mother, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut is definitely an ‘Oscar’ film but that doesn’t mean it was a winner. With beautiful cinematography and a cast which bring the words to life, this film is definitely intriguing and ominous but it wasn’t necessarily enjoyable. Aside from the relationships between mother and daughter and the realistic performances from the whole cast, The Lost Daughter at its core is empty. I felt a lack of emotion towards any character, I felt a lack of any feeling towards the narrative. Olivia Colman did bring a compelling performance but unfortunately she couldn’t save the plot, it was mediocre and unimaginative. The story was overly simple and forgettable, to be completely honest it was almost as though nothing happened. I was disappointed, the title suggested a sort of mystery or psychological thrill but this film was dull and had no mystery.
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