Another Oscar nominated film, a Netflix original, starring Oscar winner Olivia Colman (nominated here) & written/directed by actress Maggie Gyllenhaal (nominated for her screenplay adaptation). When a classic literature translator goes to a Grecian locale to unwind, the placid environment doesn't give her the tranquility she relishes (a bunch of expat American party-goers bring noise & unnecessary drama) but instead it becomes an extended self-exploration of her soul. At first Colman succeeds in keeping to herself but when rowdy tourists arrive, her attention drifts to a young mother & her child, played by Dakota Johnson, culminating in the child's disappearance which Colman miraculously finds in an adjoining location. Getting temporary praise for her help soon dwindles when the daughter's doll goes missing (which Colman has secreted back to her room). The entire episode soon grants the audience entry to flashbacks of Colman dealing w/her young daughters years before (Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley now plays her) as her life/work balance were off kilter making her relationship w/her charges fractious & prompting a extramarital affair w/a noted college professor, played by Peter Sarsgaard (Gyllenhaal's man in real life). What soon follows is an examination of how she got here from there as the audience wonders (w/great thriller aplomb) where the story will take us making the title a bit of a cinematic Mulligan's Stew (who indeed is the lost daughter?). Colman works wonders in her mostly nonverbal performance w/Buckley perfectly complementing her older self as the constant demands of career & family sometimes don't co-exist. Also starring Oliver Jackson-Cohen (last seen in Netflix's The Haunting of Bly Manor) playing Johnson's hubby, Ed Harris (welcome back!) as Colman's room caretaker & Dagmara Dominczyk (Patrick Wilson's significant other) as another of the noisy vacationing revelers.
Review of The Lost Daughter
