Alone on vacation by the sea, Leda (Olivia Colman) develops a fascination with Nina (Dakota Johnson), a young mother exhausted by the incessant demands of her daughter. These familiar scenes send Leda back to her past as a young mother who made choices with unsuspected consequences.
Of all her vacations by the sea, on a Greek island, the only moment of pure happiness experienced by Leda comes… before she arrives at her destination.
The lightness, the abandonment, the carelessness that she projects, and that we feel, as she drives her car to the resort where she has to drop off her suitcases will never make history.
After that, everything falters. Her contact with Nina, a young mother at wit’s end, not only sends her back to the years when she herself, mother of two little girls, was trying to finish a master’s thesis, but also to all the negative, shameful, hidden thoughts, which then went through his head.
“I work, I suffocate,” she tells her partner in one of the many flashback scenes where Leda is played by the excellent Jessie Buckley (Wild rose, Judy).
Leda also remembers those saving moments when she could attend a conference with learned colleagues with whom to talk about literature, with a light heart and without any remorse for her family left behind.
Now, here, in her Greek island where she came to rest, a cocktail of contradictory feelings subjugates her: guilt, shame, anger, lie.
Added to that is the look always reproving and suspicious of the psychorigid family of Nina. As if each member of this family knew that Leda was guilty of an incomprehensible act: she stole the doll of Elena, daughter of Nina.
Leda is dizzy, loses her bearings. Leda is a mother at sea. And the sea is rough. Will she be okay before the storm is over?
For a feature debut as writer and director, Maggie Gyllenhaal has hit the nail on the head. His adaptation of the novel Stolen doll by Elena Ferrante (also the title of the French version of the film) is all finesse, subtleties, interspersed with dialogues as well as percussive silences. This earned him the prize for best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival where the film had its world premiere.
Its staging is just as dazzling. The numerous characters are filmed up close. The alternation between scenes from the past and the present feeds the story well. Elements that may at first appear trivial (a basket of rotten fruit, a cicada, a hairpin, Elena’s doll) constitute powerful metaphors.
But above all, the filmmaker has surrounded herself with a prestigious cast. The film is carried by three very talented actresses: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson. Several actors in the supporting roles are equally noteworthy. It wouldn’t be surprising if the film won awards for its entire cast.
In theaters this Friday and on Netflix on December 31.
DRAMA
The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal
With Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson
2:01