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The Lost Daughter centres around Leda (Olivia Colman – The Father), who we’re shown collapsing on a beach in Greece before events go back to the start of her holiday, there, taking accommation at a place owned by a man called Lyle (Ed Harris).
While she was still upright, she was having a nice quiet day on the beach until… some noisy buggers move in, as a local family are having a birthday party, one of whom is married to Nina (at first, an unrecognisable Dakota Johnson), who has a young daughter, Elena, leading Leda to start feeling very emotional. And as Leda gets forced into awkward conversations, and tells of how she has two daughters, now aged 25 and 23, you get the feeling that there’s something amiss, and I was left wondering exactly how to interpret the title.
This is because ‘now’ is mixed in with flashbacks to a younger Leda (Jessie Buckley), around twenty years earlier, who’s still figuring out how to be a mother, especially when her husband isn’t always present.
As the film plays out, Leda spends a lot of time people-watching, including how we see Elena going AWOL temporarily, sending Nina distraught, causing the Leda to think back to when Bianca also did a disappearing act on the beach, many years ago, although this is something she can do to help befriend the raucous rabble.
We’re drip-fed the story of what happened with the younger Leda and her daughters, leading to a drama which makes for a mostly engaging watch, but feels rather soap opera-y in terms of plotting, and something that should fill an hour’s worth of TV, rather than a two-hour movie.
And as competent as Ms Buckley and Ms Johnson are, it’s Olivia Colman who, as always, steals the show, especially with her million-and-one facial expressions.
Meanwhile, it’s always good to see Ed Harris, but it’s just a small part and he’s not exactly pushing the boat out.
And some spoilery thoughts on this film, so I’ll put them behind a spoiler header:
The Lost Daughter is on Netflix now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 121 minutes
Release date: December 31st 2021
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Rating: 5.5/10
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Producers: Charles Dorfman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Osnat Handelsman-Keren, Talia Kleinhendler
Screenplay: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Novel: Elena Ferrante
Music: Dickon Hinchliffe
Cast:
Leda: Olivia Colman
Young Leda: Jessie Buckley
Nina: Dakota Johnson
Lyle: Ed Harris
Professor Hardy: Peter Sarsgaard
Callie: Dagmara Dominczyk
Will: Paul Mescal
Joe: Jack Farthing
Bianca: Robyn Elwell
Martha: Ellie Blake
Toni: Oliver Jackson-Cohen
Vassili: Panos Koronis
Professor Cole: Alexandros Mylonas
Female Hiker: Alba Rohrwacher
Male Hiker: Nikos Poursanidis
Elena: Athena Martin
Older Bianca: Ellie James
Older Martha: Isabelle Della-Porta
Woman at Ticket Window: Emmanouela Zacharopoulou
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.