NEW RELEASES Maggie Gyllenhaal Crafts a Mother’s Haunting Reverie The actress, writer, and new director rivets audiences with The Lost Daughter By Ca ro l Bada r acco Padge t t P repare to be swallowed up in thought right along with Leda (actress Olivia Col- man, Queen Elizabeth in Netflix’s The Crown , seasons 3-4), who plays a middle- aged professor on vacation in Greece in debutant director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter. The Netflix film, streaming now, Dakota Johnson
is based on pseudonymous writer Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name. Yet, Gyllenhaal’s script is subtly and daringly “Maggie.” At its core, The Lost Daughter is about being a woman and a mother. This sounds fairly standard if you don’t put a great deal of thought into it. But Gyllenhaal did, as did Ferrante before her, as did Oscar-winner Colman in her portrayal of the main character, Leda. Of Ferrante’s subject matter, Gyllenhaal told Deadline ’s “Contenders:
Olivia Colman
Photos courtesy of Netflix
Los Angeles,” “She was talking about things I had never heard anyone talk about before.” In particular, what happens when a woman decides to step aside from her role as a mother? In the story, which unfolds under two timelines, present and past, Leda lounges and does academic work from her chair in a quiet beach resort. Soon, though, her serene space on the sand busts into activity as a large, boisterous family arrives, which includes young mother Nina (Dakota Johnson) and her three-year-old daughter, Elena. As Leda’s vacation days unfold, she watches voy- euristically while Nina interacts with the willful Elena on the beach, the pair surrounded by Nina’s husband and extended family. In flashbacks and glimpses, the audience is let in on Leda’s remembrances of her own days as a young woman (expertly captured by actress Jessie Buckley) struggling with the rigors of motherhood, marriage, and a budding career. One day on the beach, Elena goes missing. And as Nina and family frantically scour the beach, Leda joins in the search, finding Elena quietly playing along a wooded path. When Leda carries the child back to her family, she is naturally and instantly embraced as their heroine. As each day passes and Leda’s personal flashbacks to early motherhood increase, viewers realize that in trying
to juggle life as a young mother, Leda turned away from her family and chose another path—a choice that has left her conflicted and haunted. And that as she watches Nina and Elena, she is reminded of the beauti- ful days of early mother- hood, as well as the dif- ficult ones that, for her, were worth abandoning.
mother,’ because that is typically a very unlikable person. But it’s so normal, and it’s so honest.” In a pivotal point in the film, Leda somehow winds up with Elena’s beloved doll in her purse on the beach. Yet, instead of returning it and soothing the child and her family, Leda takes the doll to her apartment and hides it. And near
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Of the uncomfortable and little-touched-upon sub- ject, Gyllenhaal, a parent herself, told NPR’s Ari Shapiro, “I’ve been a parent for 15 years, and I feel very confi- dent that no matter who you are, parenting is designed to bring you to your knees. You know, there’s no way to become a parent as anything other than a total beginner. It’s designed to grow you, both to grow a child and grow a parent, I think.” For Johnson, because the film’s subject matter was disturbing and appealing all at once, the idea of playing Nina, whose young-mother struggles parallel those of Leda’s, was unsettling. As she told Just Jared, “The initial feeling was, ‘Oh, I’m a little bit scared to play this young woman who’s having a really difficult time as a
the end of the film, it’s a choice that she reveals to Nina as she hands her the doll. Nina retaliates, in turn, by jabbing Leda in the abdomen with a hat pin. The Lost Daughter ends with a car crash, a beach phone call scene between Leda and her daughters, and a question—at least for many viewers. But for Gyllenhaal, who changed the script’s ending from the book’s, the ending is clear. “To me, this is a woman who is a hero,” she told the Washington Post’ s Sonia Rao, “because she is brave enough to go down into the darkest, most painful, shameful parts of herself and take a look. And that is where the life is.”
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