The Lost Daughter

 

Score:  A-

Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal

Starring Olivia Coleman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris

Running time: 122 minutes

Rated R

Long Story Short:  The Lost Daughter is the film adaptation of a novel by Elena Ferrante about a middle-aged woman whose experiences as a young mother resurface during a rockier-than-expected vacation.  Olivia Coleman is fantastic as the lead; the opposite of bombastic, she is utterly convincing in a role that needed just that.  While the movie has little plot, it is a fascinating exploration of motherhood and much that affects it in the modern world.  Highly recommended.

Leda (Coleman) arrives on a Greek island hoping for a quiet, restful vacation, but soon finds the experience quite a bit less soothing than hoped for.  Her beachside accommodations leave something to be desired, including a genial but intrusive manager, Lyle (Harris).  Sunbathing and writing on the beach, where she spends most of her days, Leda's peace and quiet are interrupted by new guests, a large, young, rowdy family.  Mostly annoyed by them, Leda nevertheless is drawn to one young mother whose presence brings back powerful memories for her.  Despite seemingly huge differences, the women find a strange connection.

The Lost Daughter is a well-made, powerful character-driven drama led by excellent performances and an engrossing script.  Olivia Coleman is among the very top actors working today, and it's good that she plays the main character, Leda, because the film is focused on her like a laser.  Jessie Buckley, playing Leda as a young mother in a substantial number of flashbacks, is also great and gets the more passionate side of the character.  But Coleman, as usual, is just fantastic.  She truly inhabits the part, as a middle-aged professor on a solo vacation.  Early on, the film effectively sets a very realistic stage; as beautiful as the Greek setting is, Leda endures a number of mundane but realistic and acutely-observed annoyances, from rotten house fruit to getting her umbrella set up just right.  There is really only the thinnest of plots here, to give a little direction for the characters, but it's really those characters themselves that deserve all the attention.  The cinematography is also good but, again, somewhat lost as most of the attention (mine, at least) was thinking about the characters.  I think the pacing was also pretty good - for a two hour movie with little plot - but I also watched it in a few chunks at home, so seeing it straight through might be different.

The characters are the true draw in this film, as well as the themes that emerge from their realistic circumstances.  Leda may be the protagonist of the story, but a flawed one at that.  She is rather aloof and distant, often curtly rejecting friendly overtures from others at the beach; she also makes a mystifying choice halfway through that causes pain to the very people she starts to cling to.  Granted, I could also put myself in her exasperated shoes when young men keep rudely shattering her peace.  The family Leda observes shocks her with its combination of closeness and occasional generosity, along with chaos and occasional hostility.  No wonder that she is fascinated by Nina, the young mother, whose background seems so different to hers yet her daily life - raising a difficult young daughter - feels so familiar.  This is where the flashbacks come in, showing Leda's struggle to raise two daughters of her own while trying to build her own academic career.  There are some minor dramatic flourishes, but this is the central idea, to me: illustrating modern motherhood.  And while I am not a mother nor even married, it struck a cord with me.  Not about the mothers, who show great strength and love despite some failings, but anger at my own gender.  I know plenty of great fathers and husbands, but too often men fail to be true partners, particularly in sharing in the raising of their children - and this, to me, is the root of Leda and Nina's struggles and even trauma.  So, is this a cheerful film?  No, but it is a strong, captivating one, and has essential observations on the very nature of domestic relations.

***

The Lost Daughter is a leading awards candidate among 2021 films (Oscar nominations aren't out until February 8; why so late???), and I would definitely agree even if it isn't a "favorite" of mine.  I am conflicted about its release on Netflix.  On one side, it's great that this is available to such a wide audience (though I doubt all that many will actually see it).  And streaming in general offers a more realistic pathway for smaller films like this in the future.  But I am sure I would have been even more engrossed by this in a theater, and I really hope that most Oscar hopefuls will continue to get at least a brief wide release in theaters.  Anyway, to repeat, this is not a cheerful one but it is a great choice for anyone looking for a mature, realistic drama and one with a lot of interesting things to say about modern life.

* By http://www.impawards.com/2021/lost_daughter.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68864633

The 355

 

Score:  B

Directed by Simon Kinberg

Starring Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz, Lupita Nyong'o, Sebastian Stan

Running time: 124 minutes

Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  The 355, featuring an all-female team of agents trying to stop a terrorist plot, hits both refreshing high, and disappointing low, notes.  The cast - with Chastain, Kruger, Nyong'o, and Cruz - has some of the best actors in Hollywood and they shine, particularly in the first part, to go with some great action.  But it falls apart in the second half, failing to realize the potential of the first.  Still, best to see this one in the theater - the good parts are worth it.

A team of Colombian commandos intervenes in what they believe is a high-level drug deal, but actually involves something unusual - and much more dangerous.  The agent who finds the object flees for his safety, but intelligence agencies all over the world pick up on this urgent incident.  The CIA sends a pair of agents, Mace (Chastain) and Nick (Stan) to retrieve the object, just as the German BND sends their best agent, Marie Schmidt (Kruger).  The flurry of competing parties leads to chaos, and the object goes missing again.  As more experts enter the mix, like tech guru Khadijah (Nyong'o), the chase intensifies - and the stakes grow, too.

The 355 is an entertaining action thriller built around an ensemble, but its shoddy second half lets down a very promising first half.  I was drawn to the all-female team premise here; no gimmick, the movie assembled a formidable group of some of today's best actors including one of my favorites, Jessica Chastain.  The entire film is pretty fast-paced, but the early parts still manage to do a good job introducing the characters who, thanks to both good writing and great performances, are distinct and interesting.  Chastain's character, Mace, has a somewhat familiar but unique (for Hollywood) relationship with her male partner, Nick; in just a few minutes, you get the sense of a complex, real woman.  Mace's friendship with Nyong'o's Khadijah is also neat, and she as well as Kruger's and Cruz's characters also get brief but fascinating back stories and personalities.  For the genre, the character work is light years ahead of its competitors, but it also does have plenty of gripping action.  There are several standout scenes in the first half - a chase through Paris featuring Mace and Marie; a shootout in a busy port; and a really well-shot, chaotic-yet-clear spy classic in a Moroccan market.  They are all both creative (even in an oversaturated genre) and realistic-seeming.  You also can practically feel the hard punches and wince at each gun shot.

Unfortunately, the film starts going downhill steadily around the midpoint.  There is a major "twist" - which, really, is pretty much to be expected in this kind of movie.  That there is a twist is not the problem, but the movie begins to focus more and more on the increasingly ludicrous plot at the expense of the characters, to my great chagrin.  The filmmakers seem to have thought the action in the first half wasn't big enough, so these grow, too, and move firmly from the somewhat plausible to generic blockbuster territory.  A final member of the team is added late, Fan Bingbing, in what is pretty clearly an attempt to draw as big a Chinese audience as possible.  Even this element could have been incorporated well - how to add an agent from a rival nation to what so far is "Team West" - but it just gets sucked in as part of the escalating plot and action, too.  Possibly my biggest disappointment is the way the film transforms Mace and Nick's relationship.  I'm not terribly surprised at what they do, but there were plenty of other, MUCH better choices.  The ending sets up for possible sequels, but considering The 355's critical and commercial reception, that seems unlikely to happen.  It's a shame; if the second half had just followed through on the promise of the first, I would gladly see more.

***

My first movie of 2022 (of films released in the calendar year, that is), I was hoping The 355 would follow in the footsteps of several other early-year movies I've seen that far surpassed their bewilderingly low reviews - Downhill, The Upside, etc.  I'm still glad that I went to the theater to see it, though, as there are parts better than anything most films can offer.  I'd prefer to see this kind of Jekyll and Hyde movie, in other words, than a consistently mediocre one.  What is it about this pattern - possibly the single most common one in Hollywood of at least the last ten years - that so many movies start very well, only to have a disappointing second half/ending?  Is it just me?  Or is Hollywood just good at starting ideas and not following through on them?  Here's one suggestion:  for the love of God, not every movie (especially action/adventure) has to just get bigger and bigger as it goes.  Well, at least this was an interesting start to the year in movies - I'm ready for more!

* By http://www.impawards.com/2021/three_five_five.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65503879