The Lost Daughter (2021)

A middle aged college professor (Olivia Colman) is on holiday in Greece. She begins observing an unhappy young mother (Dakota Johnson) and begins reflecting on her own struggle with motherhood as a young mother (Jessie Buckley). Based on the novel by Elena Ferrante and adapted for the screen and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Well, I suppose one half of a good movie is better than none at all. As long as the film sticks to the present, it's a transfixing watch but damn, those flashbacks are a slog to sit through. Colman's character explains her backstory in two sentences and if the film left it at that, this would have been one of my favorite movies of the year. But it's not enough that Colman tells us, Gyllenhaal has to show us. What a drag! The acting is very good though I'm not as enamored of Buckley's performance as some critics and awards groups are. I found Dakota Johnson much more interesting. Hats off to Gyllenhaal in her directorial debut for placing an unlikable character with psychologically disturbing traits as the central protagonist and Colman gives the best performance I've seen from her yet. With Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Mescal and Dagmara Dominczyk.