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.