The Lost Daughter (2021)

 This was another solid film proving that Maggie Gyllenhaal  is a force to be reckoned with. 

With a rather simple plotline, this film portrays Leda (Olivia Colman) as she vacations on a Greek island, trying to work on her next book as she's a scholar of Italian translation. Here, she interacts with young mother, Nina (Dakota Johnson) who has her struggles with both her husband, Toni (Oliver Jackson Cohen) and young daughter. While Leda largely watches them from afar, that all changes when Nina stops paying attention to young Elena and Elena wanders off. Fortunately Leda finds her, not in the ocean and alive and well, playing in the sandy rocks. But the story doesn't end there as Leda has taken Elena's beloved doll and the young child is distraught without it. Perhaps Leda needs to mother something. 

The film also includes numerous flashbacks to younger Leda (Jessie Buckley, great) as she struggles with motherhood (even losing her oldest daughter, Bianca temporarily) and her constant thirst for knowledge and the two don't mix well at all. You learn that she abandoned her daughters, needing the room to breath only to go back to them. 

Now, the ending is a little wonky but Leda finally comes clean and gives the doll back and Nina thinks it was sick that Leda took it just because. I don't know if she meant to stab Leda with the hat pin or not, but that's what happened. Leda then leaves, and either crashes her car (which I think happened) leaving her whole waking up on the beach and peeling an orange while talking to her daughters scene a fantasy, or she drowns in the ocean. So either way, she was never able to fully atone for the sins of her past. 

Despite the squishy ending, Colman once again proves that she's a force to be reckoned with and while she's abrasive and inflexible but she's also strong and brave, calling out a group of young men for being assholes, something which I never be strong enough to do. Still, her personality rubs many the wrong way. Buckley is also great as the younger Leda. And this film will force you think on how harshly society judges mothers. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-Paul Mescal, Ed Harris and Jack Farthing provide excellent support as a variety of men who interact with Leda at various stages of her life. 

-Leda was quite young when she had her children. 

-I wonder what Elizabeth Taylor film the theater was showing.

-Bianca often was a little brat, but Leda might not have handled the situation great either. 

-If Nina was truly happy, she wouldn't be having an affair with Will (Mescal).