At one point during my life on this little blue planet I stopped caring so much about book to screen adaptations and started treating them as two separate entities. Ever since I was able to sometimes enjoy both in spite of the differences and to better appreciate the changes that happen from book to screen. The Lost Daughter, however, has barely any tangible differences and at its core it's exactly the same thing.
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| ★★★★☆ (for both) |
"The hardest things to talk about are the ones we ourselves can't understand."
Since we've already established that both the book and the film are pretty much the same, I will not discuss them separately - and most of the talk is about their main themes and subjects anyway. I must say that it could help reading the book first.
"Does for Having Kids What Jaws Did for Sharks"
Had to use this letterboxd review to introduce our main theme because it's not about not having kids (although that review made me laugh out loud - that site has the funniest users), but a realistic portrayal of the pressures and expectations of motherhood. And I say realistic, but The Lost Daughter does take things to an extreme, but nonetheless, the message gets through and it shows us a side of motherhood we are not comfortable with as a society: the unnatural mothers, the struggles, the raw and hard sacrifice that women are expected to make for their kids and just erase their identity and wholeheartedly embrace motherhood. But just the mums, of course.
"A woman's body does a thousand different things, toils, runs, studies, fantasizes, invents, wearies, and meanwhile the breasts enlarge, the lips of the sex swell, the flesh throbs with a round life that is yours, your life, and yet pushes elsewhere, draws away from you although it inhabits your belly, joyful and weighty, felt as a greedy impulse and yet repellent, like an insect's poison injected into a vein."
In just 140 pages Ferrante does a brilliant job of showing us this unexpected version of motherhood, of women feeling trapped by it, while also providing a social commentary not only on the shared responsibility between parents but also our own expectations of mothers and how we judge them.
Read Between the Lines
The story follows Leda on her solo vacation at the beach, spending her days reading and writing and observing the Nina and her daughter playing with a doll, while reminiscing about her own days as a young mother.
"In conversations with my daughters I hear omitted words or phrases. Sometimes they get mad, they say Mama, I never said that, you’re saying it, you invented it. But I invent nothing; you just have to listen—the unspoken says more than the spoken."
We slowly learn about Leda's life as a young mother, about Leda's mother and about her two daughters while we continue to watch Nina and her family at the same time, from a safe distance. There is barely anything happening but at the same time there is so much hidden between the lines. It is a slow book, but one that I couldn't put down. There is a darkness about it that pulled me in constantly, but also made me uncomfortable.
A Film Made of Brilliant Women
I did not have any expectations for The Lost Daughter (2021) but I was curious because... how does one adapt a book where things happen in the narrator's head as much as they happen between the lines? Well, Maggie Gyllenhaal knew exactly how to do that and I am surprised that this is her first film as a director (and screen writer).
I had no doubt that Olivia Colamn will be an excellent Leda, but Dakota Johnson as Nina was fantastic as well. Of course, my biggest surprised and discovery was Jessie Buckley as young Leda - this was the first thing I've seen with Buckley and I am excited to see more of her work.
It is a slow film and rather quiet, just like the book. The camera gets so close to our characters that most of the thoughts are delivered without any lines. Both film and book are very much show-don't-tell and we are left with an ambiguous story from where we must draw our own conclusions. The ending is somewhat different from the book - but the difference is subtle and barely noticeable. Again, I recommend reading the book first otherwise the film might be more difficult to follow.
"The hardest things to talk about are the ones we ourselves can't understand."
I cannot believe I haven't read Elena Ferrante before - and no, we are not talking about how this is a pseudonym and nobody knows who she really is - good for her! But I cannot wait to read more of her work.