The Lost Daughter
BIM Distribuzione | Release Date: December 17, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
86
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 51 Critic Reviews
Positive:
48
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
BBCCaryn JamesJan 6, 2022
The story has its moments of suspense, especially when Nina's child wanders off from the beach. But the soul of the film exists in the small exchanges and tensions between characters. Read full review
100
VoxAlissa WilkinsonJan 6, 2022
The movie captures the spirit of the novel well. It’s suspenseful, but it’s not a thriller; there are elements of obsession and eroticism, but they never quite go where you expect. The end is deeply ambiguous, neither punishing nor condoning its characters’ behavior. It simply asks us to sit with them — to pay them the respect of attention, and learn something about ourselves in the process. Read full review
100
Original-CinLinda BarnardJan 3, 2022
With brilliant work by Colman, The Lost Daughter is a haunting work about choices, motherhood, and memory. Read full review
100
Time OutPhil de SemlyenDec 31, 2021
The Lost Daughter expertly juggles tone, hopscotching between timelines and slipping from tender to tense and back again, always challenging the viewer’s judgments and preconceptions in unexpected ways. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 30, 2021
Gyllenhaal’s work with her actors is quietly spectacular, and she takes the best of Ferrante’s fearlessness while letting Colman and Buckley unfold the character’s secrets through action and reaction. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerDec 21, 2021
In The Lost Daughter, Gyllenhaal isn’t interested in judgment, only truth. Every decision she makes is exactly the right one. Her three lead actresses have never been better, and casting Buckley as the young Colman is particularly inspired. It doesn’t matter that they don’t look alike – they share a crucial essence. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyJoshua RothkopfDec 21, 2021
It's a moviegoing experience, sure — and if you need to hear it, one of the best of the year. But it's really a call to compassion, which makes it transcendent. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyDec 17, 2021
Harrowing, unpredictable, painful, confrontational, this is a movie for grown-ups. Read full review
100
The PlaylistTomris LafflySep 13, 2021
The Lost Daughter leaves you haunted, shaken, and crushingly scarred like only the best of films are capable of doing. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 6, 2021
The sheer unsparing intimacy of Gyllenhaall’s film gives its thrills an excitingly illicit quality. Watching it feels like reading someone else’s diary – and then finding yourself mentioned in its pages. Read full review
100
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 6, 2021
Through it all, Gyllenhaal assumes an unfussy, practically invisible non-style that conveys the essential (like that missing doll, visible in the background of a key scene) while privileging the performances. Read full review
91
IndieWireJessica KiangSep 13, 2021
Gyllenhaal’s film is a story of self-ascribed transgression and of shame buried and turned bitterly inward, and it too, is made with such alertness to the power of cinematic language – particularly that of performance – that even as you feel your stomach slowly drop at the implications of what you’re watching, you cannot break its spreading sinister spell. Read full review
90
PolygonRobert DanielsJan 6, 2022
It’s difficult to believe The Lost Daughter is Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut. The rhythms of the narrative, the assured visual language, the precise performances she pulls from each actor moves with the confidence of a veteran filmmaker. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisDec 30, 2021
Only a superficial reading of The Lost Daughter would describe it as a meditation on the twin tugs of children and career. It is, instead, a dark and deeply disturbing exploration of something much more raw, and even radical: the notion that motherhood can plunder the self in irreparable ways. Read full review
90
ABC NewsPeter TraversDec 24, 2021
Thank Maggie Gyllenhaal, in a stunning debut as director and screenwriter, for creating one of the year’s very best movies starring the magnificent Olivia Colman as a mother haunted by her troubled past. This, you do not want to miss Read full review
90
IGNTara Bennett Dec 21, 2021
The Lost Daughter is a stunning and unflinching portrait of a woman swimming against the tides of social expectation. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesGuy LodgeDec 16, 2021
It’s not at all surprising that Gyllenhaal has arrived as a filmmaker with such a bold, conflicted paean to unorthodox femininity. But it’s thrilling just the same. Read full review
90
Vanity FairCassie da CostaSep 13, 2021
With The Lost Daughter, Gyllenhaal easily proves her talent and instinct as a director by unflinchingly infusing a great story with her own ideas and images‚ and assembling an unbeatable cast and crew (including Happy as Lazzaro and Never Rarely Sometimes Always cinematographer Hélène Louvart) to bring it home. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 7, 2021
To call The Lost Daughter an assured debut is to do it a slight disservice—assurance suggests that a filmmaker knows everything going in. What we see in The Lost Daughter is something greater: the act of discovery—of the gifts actors can bring to a story, of how to hold a complex narrative together—in progress. Read full review
90
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 6, 2021
Ultimately what makes this an unusually rewarding picture about motherhood is the fact that it shatters the binary distinction between the good mother and the bad one. Read full review
90
TheWrapYolanda MachadoSep 6, 2021
The Lost Daughter is a masterwork in perception and all that society places upon mothers and motherhood. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 6, 2021
The reclusive Italian author’s familiar themes of female relationships, sexuality, motherhood and women’s struggle to carve a professional space outside it are beautifully served in this uncompromising character study, illuminated by performances of jagged brilliance from Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley as her younger self. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldDec 23, 2021
Gyllenhaal here shows herself as a natural storyteller; The Lost Daughter flows like water as its characters navigate territory not often explored in film. Read full review
88
ObserverEmily ZemlerDec 17, 2021
This is Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, and in her capable hands the story is purposefully hazy, unfolding in both present day and disjointed flashbacks, opening space for the audience to question the behavior of these characters and the societal pressures driving their actions. Read full review
88
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckDec 16, 2021
Perhaps there’s something in this tale of two women — or really, three — that speaks to all who try to pretend that it’s unnatural to sometimes be ambivalent about motherhood. And that motherhood is not, in ways and at times, a struggle for nearly everyone. Read full review
88
Paste MagazineAurora AmidonDec 15, 2021
Gyllenhaal’s extraordinary direction, paired with exceptional performances from The Lost Daughter’s lead actresses, culminate in a perfect storm that yields an astute portrait of the painful expectations of womanhood. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 14, 2021
Maggie Gyllenhaal makes a quietly astonishing directorial debut with “The Lost Daughter,” a crafty treatise on maternal ambivalence that delivers an unsettling emotional wallop. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 14, 2021
Writing and directing her first feature, which she adapted from an Elena Ferrante novel, Maggie Gyllenhaal employs an intensely intimate camera, one that’s so tight on Colman’s face that at times her features are a blur. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 8, 2021
Colman’s performance is the film’s marvel. But Gyllenhaal’s brilliant, subtle manipulations make hers one of the most auspicious directing debuts in years, a veteran, intimidating cinematic “bad girl” who turns her withering gaze on us and strings us along, wondering what became of The Lost Daughter. Read full review
83
UproxxVince ManciniDec 18, 2021
Flaws aside, Gyllenhaal genuinely feels like a new voice as a storyteller, and not just an actor stretching, which is a rare thing. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayDec 16, 2021
For most of the movie’s running time, Gyllenhaal pulls off a remarkable trick, turning everyday inconveniences like rotting fruit and rude people—and deeper existential crises like regretting parenthood—into sources of nerve-jangling tension. The film is like a chase picture, with a heroine racing in vain to escape societal expectations. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlan NgJan 13, 2022
The beauty of the film is just how genuine and down-to-earth the performances are and how Gyllenhaal maintains a natural, authentic tone throughout. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsJan 3, 2022
Colman brings Ferrante’s creation to life with all the withering pathos she deserves. Gyllenhaal catches it handsomely, awe-struck, as if even she didn’t know how painfully real this woman Leda could seem or, in Colman’s hands, be. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJan 3, 2022
It’s a movie that, in adapting a novel by Ferrante, indicates the grievous lack in the current cinema of dramas that do what is done all the time in literary fiction: consider women’s lives in intimate detail and in the light of wide-ranging, deep-rooted experience. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeDec 22, 2021
As always, Colman manages to express deep wellsprings of emotion with few words and fewer gestures – her face telegraphing great swathes of anguish beneath polite smiles and annoyed glances. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyDec 16, 2021
That’s the wonderful thing about The Lost Daughter – it embraces thorniness. It treats it not as a personality flaw but as a badge of survival. Sadness is lanced through the heart of Gyllenhaal’s film, which she both adapted and directed, but it’s rich and luxurious in its texture. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 16, 2021
Ms. Gyllenhaal might have chosen conventionally entertaining material for her first time behind the camera, but she and Ms. Colman turn “The Lost Daughter” into something memorable. It’s a study of repression expressed with heartbreaking poignancy, a lost mother’s search for herself. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 16, 2021
What is great about Colman’s performance is that it is always teetering on the brink of some new revelation about Leda: her face is subtly trembling with … what? Tears? Laughter? A scowl of scorn? Read full review
80
EmpireElla KempDec 14, 2021
What could have been little more than an acting showcase for a reliable ensemble fully sings: a sophisticated, seductive, slightly unwieldy and often very sad study of the instability and upsets of motherhood. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 14, 2021
It’s an outstanding debut for someone who obviously knows her way around both sides of the camera. Read full review
80
Little White LiesSophie Monks KaufmanDec 14, 2021
It may not all add up but this is an ambitious and taboo-tackling debut with an atmosphere that lingers thanks to gutsy performances from Colman and Buckley. Read full review
80
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiOct 21, 2021
Nuanced, thoughtful, and deeply effective, Gyllenhaal’s movie is assuredly executed, uplifted by a strong, striking performance by Olivia Colman. Read full review
80
The GuardianXan BrooksSep 13, 2021
I’m not convinced, on balance, that Gyllenhaal’s delicious drama is finally much more than a storm in a teacup. But what a cup, what a storm. When Hurricane Colman blows in from the sea, be sure your roof’s in good shape and that all the windows are fastened. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 3, 2022
The Lost Daughter uses tone, location, and a string of expert performances to leave an impression, even if the story itself is unremarkable. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 16, 2021
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter is a chilling and unnerving psychological horror film brimming with dicey characters who are capable of deeply disturbing behavior. We keep holding our breath because it feels like something awful is about to happen — and our instincts might not be wrong. Read full review
75
The Film StageDavid KatzSep 12, 2021
[Gyllenhaal’s] chief successes are in making her adaptation of The Lost Daughter as intellectually engaging as the novel, whilst bringing the characters to life with performances beautifully appropriate for cinema––one thing an author doesn’t have in his or her arsenal, is summoning a camera “close-up,” with an actor creating that particular emotional transparency in tandem. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerDec 15, 2021
In a year when there's been great discussion about unlikable protagonists, Colman's creation of Leda as a living, breathing, deeply flawed character who can be both wounded and cruel – and the way Gyllenhaal sympathetically frames this unflattering portrait – is a fascinating reminder that not every film needs to leave us feeling comfortable. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyDec 16, 2021
[Gyllenhaal’s] direction is unemphatic without ever being tentative, and she’s made a film with a relaxed, easy rhythm — but not too easy. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyDec 17, 2021
Based on the novel by Elena Ferrante, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s opening gambit as a writer-director is a brave charge at source material defined by flashbacks and far too many subplots. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 14, 2021
Still, no matter how flat “The Lost Daughter” can sometimes seem, there’s always something to hold our attention. The movie is never great, but it’s never exactly dull. There’s always a reason to stick around for the next scene. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneDec 6, 2021
For a while, Olivia Colman’s expressive performance carries the film, with little narrative distraction or stylistic conspicuousness. Read full review
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