THE LOST DAUGHTER

 
I admire Maggie Gyllenhaal's fearless approach to her art. Her commitment to what I take as her vision of the truth of a character she plays as an actor, or characters she guides as a director, always strikes me as fierce. As it does in THE LOST DAUGHTER. The challenge is her interpretation of Elena Ferrante's vision of the characters she created in the novel Gyllenhaal wrote the screenplay for. The Italian novelist gave Gyllenhaal permission to do it her way, but for me, the transformation of a story whose characters all share the same dark Neapolitan history to one whose characters come from more dispersed and unrelated backgrounds created a feeling of something missing. All the terrific performances, the radical cinematography, and the bold direction left me impressed but dissatisfied. And the seeming ambiguity of the (also altered) ending only added to that. Worth watching for the artistry, but frustrating for me.