Children are a crushing responsibility

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 51 Films of 2021

#9 : The Lost Daughter

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s accomplished directing debut makes humid, sensual cinema of Elena Ferrante’s psychodrama of a novel, and boasts a superb central performance from Olivia Colman.

Oh yes - we're definitely in psychodrama territory here.  It all feels rich in symbolism, where every scene has at least three meanings which you're supposed to understand.  

It's also, well, a bit boring.  OK - a lot boring.  And very, very wordy.  

It's basically a reflection on parenthood based upon a selection of people who seem to be particularly unsuited to it - I would attempt to give you a precis of the plot but well, it doesn't really have one.  A lot of the scenes are drawn out waaaay longer than they need to be (there's a 30 second scene of her driving a car and singing along - which ends up feeling like five minutes) and they're interspersed with confusing flashbacks which don't make any sense by themselves, but hint at past drama.  Also, half the people in this film have absolutely no filter either and happy to either pry into anyone's personal life or offer up information in a way that, for me, just isn't realistic.  It also has an extremely odd ending - although with a bit of thought there is some nice ambiguity to it.

Olivia Colman is, as always, very good (her second appearance on the list - I think it's only her and Steven Yeun that appear twice) - although her accent does do some odd things at times.  Jessie Buckley is good too - she plays a believable version of young Olivia.  Leda (Olivia/Jessie) is an interesting character because she's not particularly likeable, but that's nowhere near unique in this regard in this film - however, I would say though that Leda is considerably weirder than most.  Everyone else in the film just kinda pops in and out on an apparent whim - it's hard for them to make much of an impression, although Ed Harris did stand out for me because he's looking old these days (but he's 71, so I think we can let him off).  Dakota Johnson also does a good job, although she is required to overact at times and doesn't look particularly happy about it.

It is a very good looking film with some nicely composed shots in some lovely locations - I think my main gripe it just needed a bit more editing for my liking.  Two hours was far too long and nearly all the plot/explanation happens in the second half, which seemed a bit odd.  Overall, I think Maggie Gyllenhaal has promise as a director, but I'm not convinced she entirely delivers here (but she did a better job than I'd manage).

Wikipedia tells me this was very well regarded critically with three Oscar nominations for Olivia, Jessie and the screenplay - I can see that people will have seen this as a "brave portrayal of a woman who refuses to conform to societal norms" but personally I was more leaning towards "a woman who's just not very nice".  And spends far too long about it as well - it was a struggle for me.

#10 - Yes, I'm a heathen
#8 - The highest film I'd never heard of