The Lost Daughter

 

The Lost Daughter 2021

• Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Based on the book by Elena Ferrante
• Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Mescal, Jack Farthing
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Olivia Colman - many
• Jessie Buckley – Women Talking, Judy, Chernobyl, Wild Rose, The Tempest (on stage at the Globe in London and on DVD)
• Dakota Johnson – The Peanut Butter Falcon, Cymbeline, Social Network
• Ed Harris – many
• Peter Sarsgaard – An Education, Elegy, Jarhead, Stephen Glass, Dead Man Walking
• Paul Mescal – Aftersun
• Why? Colman and Buckley
• Seen:  19 March 2025 

            For some reason I never became enthralled by Ferrante’s books like most readers seem to have done, but I expect Colman, Buckley and Harris to do something good with this.

            Leda (Colman) is a professor of literature on holiday in Greece. Her quiet beach is invaded by obnoxious, loud Americans. Seeing the daughter of one of the women (Johnson), disturbing memories return to Leda of the time when her daughters were small and she was struggling with the demands her small girls placed on her, with building a demanding career and with dealing with husband and lover.

            It is of course relevant to young women’s lives today and I’m sure many viewers can relate to both the young and the older Leda. Choosing to have neither children nor a lover, it all seems remote to me, though Colman and Buckley, as the young Leda, are superb and some of the isolated scenes are very gripping, which raise it to

 

3 ½ * of 5