The Lost Daughter (121 minutes).
Rating: 
Verdict: Colman has absolute mustard
Spider-Man, No Way Home (12A), 148 minutes
Rating: 
Verdict: This is fun, but it’s not an amazing experience.
Soon it will be awards season, and if Olivia Colman’s name is not on the lists of Best Actress nominations for her performance in The Lost DaughterThe lists, in other words, will not be correct.
Jessie Buckley, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jessie Buckley need to be in frame.
The Lost DaughterHer directorial debut is incredibly auspicious.
It’s a intense psychological drama and an adaptation by Gyllenhaal of Elena Ferrante’s 2008 novel.
Colman portrays Leda, an academic of middle age originally from Leeds, but now it seems, a Harvard professor.
On holiday alone on a Greek Island, she is disturbed by the unexpected arrival of her Greek-American cousins.
One day, the family loses a little girl on the beach, sending everyone, but especially the child’s mother (Dakota Johnson), into a frenzied panic.
Soon it will be awards season, and if Olivia Colman’s name is not on the lists of Best Actress nominations for her performance in The Lost Daughter , then, simply put, the lists will be wrong
Jessie Buckley, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal also need to be present in frame
Leda recalls her difficult years as a mom to her two children. This episode (and the fallout) brings back memories of those times.
You really only need this synopsis, as to add more would lead to spoiler territory.
Leda’s main problem is her troubled spirit. She is often agitated by deep feelings of guilt at the inadequacies she has as a mother.
In spite of the American accents, Gyllenhaal manages to convey that not everything is well on this Greek island paradise.
Some appetizing-looking fruits in a bowl in her apartment turn out to be rotting. Cool night air from an open window carried an alarmingly large cicada onto her bed. At night, the lighthouse’s beam continues to illuminate her bedroom.
Even with the Americans not being loud, Gyllenhaal makes clear that things aren’t always well on her Greek island paradise.
Her highly acclaimed directorial debut is The Lost Daughter. The Lost Daughter is intensely psychological drama. Gyllenhaal also wrote the adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s 2008 novel.
I haven’t read Ferrante’s novel but I can imagine all this being skilfully rendered in prose and not quite working on screen. It works, evoking a sense of anxiety.
Above all, Colman’s performance is astonishingly good. Colman won an Oscar in The Favourite (2018) for playing Queen Anne, another woman with a psychologically fragile character. This role was an honor for an actress of her caliber.
The unhappy Leda is a much more subtle and demanding role, and it’s hard to think of anyone who could do it quite as well, although Buckley is scarcely less brilliant, especially in the scenes with the daughters.
Above all, Colman’s performance is astonishingly good. Her Queen Anne role in The Favourite (2018) won her an Oscar. This was another woman who is psychologically fragile, and it was an honor for an actress so good.
Colman is Leda. She plays a middle-aged, academic from Leeds who now appears to be a Harvard professor. Colman plays Leda, a middle-aged academic who is holidaying alone on a Greek island. Her idyllic beach life is disrupted by the arrival of her Greek-American cousins.
It’s a piercingly accurate and moving depiction of the yin and yang of young motherhood, both the pleasures and the tribulations.
In the film’s lesser roles, too, the casting is spot on. Johnson is perfect, as are Ed Harris as the American caretaker of Leda’s apartment, and Peter Sarsgaard (the director’s husband) as the pompous, much-older academic who seduces Buckley’s Leda.
I first saw The Lost Daughter at this year’s Venice Film Festival, where sometimes initial impressions can be influenced by a reverential audience. However, it was more captivating when I went back to it this week in much more intimate surroundings.
At the IMAX screening on Tuesday night of, it would have been very easy for me to become too distracted. Spider-Man has no way home.
The audience cheered, hooted, and hailed the movie’s conclusion. They also applauded the film sporadically throughout the film, when Jon Watts made a surprise announcement or shared one of his in-jokes.
This story is more bizarre than ever.
At the conclusion of 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, inoffensive high school kid Peter Parker (Tom Holland) was outed as the spandexed one’s alter ego by his vanquished foe Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal).
There was no way to avoid getting carried away at the IMAX screening on Tuesday of Spider-Man : No Way Home.
This film shows the consequences as Peter, blamed for Mysterio’s death, is hounded by the media and forced to go into hiding with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei).
He and his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), his girlfriend MJ Zendaya, have submitted to the same college but were all rejected.
Peter feels responsible for Aghast and asks Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), to cast a spell that will make the whole world forget he’s Spider-Man.
Unfortunately, this spell goes sour, and the lure of villains comes back to haunt those who were once entangled with the internet-slinging crimebuster.
Peter feels responsible for his actions and asks Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), to cast a spell that will make the whole world forget that he’s Spider-Man.
Spider-Man lovers will find a few genuine surprises and an appealing balance of genuine wit, dramatic oomph and genuine wit.
It’s at least a good part for Willem Dafoe, the Green Goblin. Watts, his writers, shamelessly and at times poignantly try to find a way with Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire to make No Way Home.
Spider-Man lovers will find a few genuine surprises and an appealing balance of genuine wit, dramatic oomph and genuine wit.
But overall it’s a greatest hits album of a film, certain to delight fans but maybe not the true comic-book purists.
A longer version of the Spider-Man: No Way Home review ran in Wednesday’s paper. Both movies are now in cinemas. The Lost Daughter can also be viewed on Netflix beginning December 31.