The Lost Daughter

Still following the degrees of connection in my viewing I decided to follow the breadcrumb trails from Olivia Coleman and Paul Mescal which led me to finally watch this film, written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, which is (partly at least) another meditation on parenthood. 

Olivia Coleman is Leda, a deliberately evocative name if I ever heard one, spending a week alone in a beachside get-away. The family that arrives to disrupt her peace is an irritant and a trigger for a series of flashes of memory about motherhood and relationship with her daughters.  Having so recently watched Aftersun, I can’t help but see this as a partner piece, but this time there is no nostalgic childlike filter to soften the edges.  The chaotic, brutal and unsparing look at the constant denial of self that parenting often requires was really on point, and the petty triumphs that the young version of Leda (an excellent Jessie Buckley) exacts are as recognisable as they are painful.  This is a woman that comes up short and she knows it even as she carries on, unable to behave differently it seems.  Olivia Coleman’s older Leda is all desperate control but with depths that she cannot manage, and is increasingly unable to hide from others or herself, encapsulated beautifully in her seemingly random act at the beach. As you would expect, Olivia Coleman's performance appears as effortless as ever, using her warm and reassuring persona as a counterpoint to unfathomable petty behaviour.  She is just a marvel.

Is the end a redemption?  The return to her children, which in a lesser film would be seen as a redemptive resolution is here a lot more complicated.  ‘I loved them and I was selfish’ she says.  So, no happy ending then or tidying up of loose ends but there is a kind of truce which was satisfying in itself.

Watching both Aftersun and The Lost Daughter in the same week is a kind of happy accident.  The parallels are striking but so are the differences.  Aftersun is all dazzling technicolour through the soft focus of childhood memories whilst The Lost Daughter is a close up and sharp view of a woman from the other side of that lense. 

Aftersun made me feel, The Lost Daughter made me think - perfect combination!