Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Writer/director: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Netflix.
In what is truly another praiseworthy performance, actress Olivia Colman has us mermerised in this multi-layered psychological drama from first-time director Maggie Gyllenhaal.
In her role as a divorced professor holidaying in Greece, Leda Caruso (Colman, The Crown, The Favourite, The Father, Accused) is seemingly suffering from an estranged relationship with her two grown daughters.
The literary scholar has her peaceful trip interrupted with the arrival of a raucous family. Among them is Nina (Dakota Johnson, The Fifty Shades of Grey, The Social Network, Beastly), who is with her three-year-old daughter, Elena. Using Nina as a substitute, how Leda tries to recapture the relationship with her daughters makes up a part of this story.
Leda’s obsession with the young woman and her child quickly grows, causing her to flashback to her own past and her experiences about raising Bianca and Martha. When Elena goes missing (and her favourite doll), it’s Leda who finds the child, developing a serious, stalker-like affinity with the pair.
Recollections are used to reveal the struggle young Leda (Jessie Buckley, Chernobyl, Wild Rose) has had with being a mother, often losing her patience and becoming withdrawn from her family. Buckley also gives an eye-catching performance.
Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight, Crazy Heart, Secretary, Sherrybaby) delivers a complex cerebral drama about motherhood that’s disquieting and forthright. The film is an adaptation of a novel of the same name, written by Elena Ferrante.
Gyllenhaal made her writing and directing debut with The Lost Daughter, for which she won the Venice International Film Festival’s Best Screenplay Award last year. This director knows how to pierce the minds of the characters on her own terms, letting the camera reveal everyone’s inner workings. The device lingers on faces, hands, arms and — the emotional impact is palpable. There’s also something special about the way you peel an orange!
Poldark star Jack Farthing plays Leda’s husband Joe and Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass) is her renowned peer Professor Hardy. Ed Harris (WestWorld) plays resort handyman Lyle; Irish actor Paul Mescal (Normal People) features as the resort waiter, Will; and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Haunting of Hill House) plays Nina’s husband Tony.
