Not Without My Lost Daughter
Wednesday, February 12, 2020 at 12:00PM by Jason Adams
Variety has just announced that Maggie Gyllenhaal will be making her directorial debut with an adaptation of Elena Ferrante's bestselling book The Lost Daughter, and it will star Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Mr. Maggie Gyllenhaal aka Peter Sarsgaard, and the Wild Rose herself Jessie Buckley...
I haven't read it but The Lost Daughter sounds to me like a bit of the anti-Eat-Pray-Love -- an older woman and school-teacher (Colman) whose children have just headed off to college heads on an European vacation to revel in her newfound freedom, only to be confronted with a dark mirror of her past mistakes represented through a younger mother (Johnson) and her family that she meets in Italy. It sounds more like Highsmith to me than it does an Oprah Book Club selection, but perhaps if you've read it you can set me straight if it's otherwise.
Whatever the case that cast is top-notch killer stuff, the sort of cast any director would dream of in 2020, and I, as the treasurer of the Dakota-stan Fan Summit, cannot wait to see Queen Colman facing off with Dakota, who still remains woefully underrated acting-wise and will be more than able to bring it opposite a talent like Olivia. Dakota has faced down Tilda Swinton two times and done just dandy, thank you very much.
Anyway beyond that I'm trying to stay away from making a parallel between the journey that Maggie Gyllenhaal's character Candy on HBO's The Deuce has made from streetwalker to film director with Gyllenhaal's own journey, from actress to just announcing her directorial debut today... but! I just can't help feeling echoes of Candy's burgeoning self-confidence and sense of personal expression across this news. Sue me. Maggie Gyllenhaal has always seemed like a human being with things to say, and I'm glad she's finding a new way to say them.
Reader Comments (18)
Dakota shutting down Ellen's disingenuous bullshit as a guest on her show is worthy of eternal adulation. Plus the girl can act!
As Italian I wonder why some of our worst products had so much international success: The Last Kiss, Perfetti sconosciuti, Elena Ferrante's books.
PP -- Raffaella Carrà
I love Elena Ferrante. This book is searing, riveting (and I read Italian). PP is so wrong.
I enjoy TFE, but how difficult can it be to identify contributors who have read the book or seen the movie or researched the history of the topic?
Thanks Sheryl i've never seen Ellen as uncomfy,Dakota is now the Queen of no bullsh**.
James -- can you elaborate on what it is I messed up by admitting to having not read the book? I read three different synopses of it, on Wikipedia and Amazon and on the news-story on Variety, and I tried to condense those into one paragraph; I don't think I'm off base with anything I said about it but since I can't exactly know the tone if I was off-base please tell me what that was; that's why I asked. I think it's a bit ridiculous to expect everyone on every website to have read every book in the world; I doubt every person on the internet who's written up this news today has.
markgordonuk - It's such a great calm "I won't let you twist the truth to make me the butt of your attempted joke" moment. Ellen being crappy to her staff and others is on the level of open secrets that Corden being horrible and Fallon being a bit of a drunk are. Also I'd say it's about the level of transparent and long term talked about by a lot of "shadow sources" as Weinstein being "handsy" and Spacey liking "younger men" was.
"This turns me on"
very much waiting for the Oscar, thank you, if someone else, as I expected, and because of this did not do my homework, then I can share the find - a great essay writing service.
Jason- I apologize that I chose this post to express frustration. It is not intended to be personal.
My annoyance is the site's editorial decision to embrace a variety of posters and commenters who express opinions without first hand experience of the art in question. I simply think TFE should post pieces by authors who have actually read the book, seen the film, or done the research (which in this case means acknowledging information of occurrences before the author's birthdate, or worse adolescence).
"... which in this case means acknowledging information of occurrences before the author's birthdate, or worse adolescence"
Without you being specific I still don't really have any idea what you're getting at, James. I shared the synopsis of the book -- I could have just quoted Variety and left it at that, relying on their work, but I attempted to flesh that out. What exactly did I miss or mess up?
If what you're just getting at is a movie-blogger can't express excitement about an upcoming movie project without having read the book it's based on I vehemently disagree. I am familiar with all of the actors and the director and I look forward to seeing and reviewing the film when the time comes. Not being able to share and comment on this news until I've actually read the full book that I gave a seemingly fine synopsis of seems outlandish.
Maggie Gyllenhaal making her directorial debut starring her husband? Sign me up. Let's hope she's a better director than her dad who has made a few decent stuff but is largely eh...
@Malick-But she's a gay icon!
Whta's the big deal
One of the best actresses of her generations. I am interested in seeing her voice as a director.
Maggie Gyllenhaal will also be working int baz luhrmann elvis's project. Exciting times !
I am all up for Maggie and Dakota, but LMAO I still doubt Olivia can be a bonafide leading lady. The Favourite and The Crown has a great "supporting" cast that takes a lot of screen time, so thank God I did not have to watch her boring queens all the time.
I’m fully there for Colman, Buckley and Johnson. Very interested to see how Maggie gets on - she has demonstrated good taste in her choices and continued to grow into a nuanced and distinctive actress. I imagine she’ll get stellar performances out of this great cast at the very least.