The Daughter

Seen at the lovely Roxy Cinema in Nowra, NSW

Bea says: It was a great pleasure to see a film out of NSW, featuring Sam Neill and Geoffrey Rush.  It took me back to a time when Australian cinema was doing very well in the 1970s, 1980s and into the early 1990s, and seeing local films was a regular occurence; it is more of rarity now, sadly.

The Daughter was a gripping film with a strong plotline and character development.  It is dark, in mood, story and cinematography and the ending is unresolved.  I didn't know, until the final credits rolled, that it is based on Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck (which I have not read, although I have read other Ibsen works).  It made sense - the dark, wintry settings, the family dramas and self-destructiveness.

The film is shot around the NSW Highlands, and unlike a lot of Australian film, features a cool climate and I enjoyed that aspect of its difference to the usual cultural fodder of Australian life in the media (beach or outback).  Performances were strong, but I particularly enjoyed Sam Neill's perfectly low key portrayal of the daughter's grandfather.

The film explores the impact of social issues and class, and the meaning of family deeply, with much to discuss and reflect upon afterwards - it owes the depth to Ibsen probably, but has been very well translated into contemporary Australian life, so that has been well done by the producing, writing, directing and acting team.  The director, or writer, I believe was also responsible for Lantana, which Cecil and I saw on one of our first ever dates - also a fairly dark film!

Highly recommended, as both an experience and to support our film industry.
****

Cecil says: It's not the kind of film I'd usually choose to see on a warm Sunday Monday. As Bea says, it's not the cheeriest film, but it is a really good production.

It says a lot that my favourite pieces of acting actually came from two very powerful portrayals of grief at different points in the film's story: one from Geoffrey Rush and the other from the rather good teenage actress Odessa Young, who plays Hedvig rather marvellously.

Christian (played by Paul Schneider) is the most destructive character in the film. Everything he does seems to cause more turmoil and upset, and you are left at the end with the feeling that although he is the instigator of so many battles and traumas between various members of the family, he is the one who comes out of it unhealed, still angry and traumatised by the death of his mother many years ago.

The friendly usher on the way out of the cinema asked if we'd enjoyed the film, 'Enjoy' isn't really what you do with a film like this, but it was certainly thought-provoking and gave us lots to talk about on our 45 minute drive home afterwards.

I'm certainly glad I saw The Daughter but somehow it's a film that lends itself to coming out in the dark. The bright midday sun of an Australian autumn day just didn't feel right.

***.5