It takes courage to say aloud that you are an “unnatural” mother, just as it takes courage to admit that you are better off without your children and that talking to them on the phone isn’t all that nice. Maggie Gyllenhaal has this courage and puts it all into the words, looks and choices of the protagonist of her directorial debut film presented at the 78th edition of the Venice Film Festival. It’s called The Lost Daughter and it’s not just the adaptation of a novel by Elena Ferrante, it’s a reckless and profound tale of the ugly side of being a mother and the contradiction that this role brings with it on a psychological level.
That motherhood is one of the central themes of this edition of the Venice Film Festival is evident. He talks about it Parallel Mothers, the opening film of Venice 78 by Pedro Almodovar, the Russian 107 Mothers in competition at Orizzonti, is a topic that comes up in Competencia Official and how not to mention Spencer by Larraín. We have seen many mothers in these days on the big screens of the Lido cinemas, multiple portraits of women who, by choice or not, have assumed this role in their lives. Contradictory, even selfish, but with an honesty we so badly needed that we found them indispensable. The beauty of the cinematographic representations of the mothers of Venice 78 is their realism, being tangible, recognizable, admirable, true.
But back to Maggie Gyllenhaal.
The former Donnie Darko actress does an amazing job directing The Lost Daughter. It never exceeds, it does not exaggerate, it leaves room only for significant details and lets the character of the characters flow, giving them full freedom of expression. This film shows the audience all the exasperation of raising two little girls while trying not to blow their dream, it shows the selfishness, the irrationality, the betrayal and that maternal bond that no matter how much you can hate in some moments, once you have it, it inevitably stays within you.
The script of this film and the interpretation of Olivia Colman and Dakota Johnson in two parallel characters who could meet and notice each other only when one could teach the other something and be an example is surprising.
Maggie Gyllenhaal does something that Pedro Almodovar with Madres Paralelas fails to do: he reaches the public despite the darkness of his protagonist and her being an imperfect mother, a mother who abandons her daughters, who leaves them to think about her happiness . This woman chooses to be a selfish mother and in the name of that same selfishness for which she leaves her daughters alone then returns to them because “selfishly” she misses them. Quite right? Wrong? But who are we to judge!
No woman is born a mother. There are those who have a more marked maternal instinct, those who do not have it at all, those who discover they have it late and those who regret having had it completely but that’s okay because contradiction, selfishness, honesty do part of life and for once the cinema was not afraid to show it.
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