'The Lost Daughter' takeaway: Netflix film sheds light on the ugliness of motherhood

A directorial debut to perfectly wrap up 2021, The Lost Daughter is Maggie Gyllenhaal's first film as a director and writer that premiered today on Netflix.

Starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson as the leads, The Lost Daughter follows a woman and her past life as a mother after she meets a young woman with a daughter.

The film unravels the unnatural side of motherhood and the frustrations that come with it. The Lost Daughter is based on a 2006 novel by Elena Ferrante.

It's time to understand The Lost Daughter's takeaway.

Note: This article contains spoilers.

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The unusual nature of motherhood in 'The Lost Daughter'

Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter talks extensively about motherhood but the downside of it. It sheds light on the challenges a mother faces while raising children, something that is not talked about.

Olivia Colman, who stars as Leda, portrays a woman with a very complex relationship with motherhood. The film is the only cinematic story that has taken on the suffocation and exhaustion directly in conjunction to the love and expectation.

Based on the novel by Elena Ferrante, The Lost Daughter looks at the messy side of motherhood but with the kind of empathetic focus that is usually reserved for antiheroes.

It all begins when viewers meet Leda, a middle-aged woman on a working vacation - a person with good self-confidence and self-recrimination. They also learn about Leda's daughters and whose absence explains her behavior.

According to Leda, 'Children are a crushing responsibility' yet she constantly finds herself drawn to Nina and her daughter Elena, in whom she sees herself as a young mother.

The situation is explained better when Elena goes missing and Leda is reminded of her panic in a similar situation. She also relates to Nina's frustration when she sees Elena being impossible to handle, to which she feels somewhat of a connection and validation.

Different women respond to motherhood differently, sometimes in ways that are at odds with the myths of the concept and their own expectations. At times, the type of sacrifices and accommodations required by motherhood are not clear until one actually has children and sometimes, they fail to bend according to those needs.

A young Leda did her best to be a good mother but seeing herself get lost in that was too much for her.

The protagonist, Leda, sees her own attempt to create some space for herself in the other woman. She wishes to see an identity that is not defined by the ability to comfort a crying child and like Nina, she was cursed with a husband who was of no help. Yet, both women are blamed for the unnatural motherhood that comes from them.

Neither Leda nor Nina are presented as role models or ideal mothers, especially because the former's journey is twisted and inexplicable. But the beauty of The Lost Daughter lies in its ability to hold two thoughts at the same time - a mother can love her children truly and deeply but also want something more from life.

If her marriage or society fails to offer her support, she will sometimes resort to her most desperate choice of survival even if it pushes her down for the rest of her life.

Understand the downside of motherhood with Olivia Colman-starrer The Lost Daughter, now streaming on Netflix.