150 Word Review: ‘The Lost Daughter’ (2021)
Mother's nature
Leda is the hero of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s confident directorial debut, The Lost Daughter. At least, she’s the hero to me. Leda has spent her life trying to be true to herself, even if that means pushing away her loved ones.
In this sinister drama, she is a middle-aged scholar on a solo working vacation in sunny Greece. As Leda, Olivia Colman is a melancholy loner annoyed by noisy mortals and their families ruining the beach. If you ask her about her children, she will stare at you with wide, empty eyes. Jesse Buckley plays Leda as a brilliant but conflicted young woman, who we meet in flashbacks. She makes choices that will haunt her for decades.
The Lost Daughter is like a summer fever, a movie that will make you sweat and shiver. There is a stunning moment near the end when Coleman briefly opens Leda’s heart and its blinding.