With: Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Domińczyk, Jack Farthing, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Peter Sarsgaard, Ed Harris
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Written by: Maggie Gyllenhaal, based on a novel by Elena Ferrante
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Directed by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
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MPAA Rating: R for sexual content/nudity and language
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Running Time: 121
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Date: 12/17/2021
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Drag Doll
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Maggie Gyllenhaal makes her feature writing and directing debut with The Lost Daughter (2021), based on a novel by Elena Ferrante. It concerns a professor, Leda (Olivia Colman), who takes a solitary beach vacation and finds her quiet interrupted by the arrival of a large family. Leda helps Nina (Dakota Johnson) find her lost daughter, but also decides to steal the child's beloved doll. In flashback, young Leda (Jessie Buckley) faces the overwhelming challenges of being a new mother and finds a kind of freedom when she attends a conference and meets a charismatic colleague (Peter Sarsgaard). Gyllenhaal films with a confident dreaminess and slowness, though the flashback sequences feel more rushed and cluttered. Even if it has the ability to frustrate, it's an accomplished film, which has the courage to assert — against the grain of traditional Hollywood movies — that motherhood may not be for every woman.
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