Love your reflections on The Lost Daughter. I still haven't watched, but am planning to this weekend, but no matter how I feel about the movie, I am grateful for the thoughtful conversations it has started, and the normalizing of maternal ambiguity.
I did! I appreciated that there were no simple answers presented. That Leda, and her choice to abandon her children for a time was presented not as a monster, but a human. I loved how it did not sugarcoat motherhood or pretend that it gets easier. When Nina says: "Does it pass? I think I have depression." Leda says: "It doesn't. It doesn't pass." There is such bravery in putting those words out there without apology. I loved Leda saying to the woman who isn't a mother yet: "Children are a crushing responsibility." Yes, yes to the weight of it. Also, the permission granted to own your wants. When Nina is considering having an affair and she asks Leda about it, Leda says: "I think you should do what you want." It made me realize how rarely we are told that, as women. So yeah, I loved it for what it allowed women to be.
Fantastic observations, thank you for sharing them! Particularly love that realisation that women are so rarely given endorsement for doing what they want.
Love your reflections on The Lost Daughter. I still haven't watched, but am planning to this weekend, but no matter how I feel about the movie, I am grateful for the thoughtful conversations it has started, and the normalizing of maternal ambiguity.
Thank you for this lovely comment. Did you end up watching it and what did you take from it?
I did! I appreciated that there were no simple answers presented. That Leda, and her choice to abandon her children for a time was presented not as a monster, but a human. I loved how it did not sugarcoat motherhood or pretend that it gets easier. When Nina says: "Does it pass? I think I have depression." Leda says: "It doesn't. It doesn't pass." There is such bravery in putting those words out there without apology. I loved Leda saying to the woman who isn't a mother yet: "Children are a crushing responsibility." Yes, yes to the weight of it. Also, the permission granted to own your wants. When Nina is considering having an affair and she asks Leda about it, Leda says: "I think you should do what you want." It made me realize how rarely we are told that, as women. So yeah, I loved it for what it allowed women to be.
Fantastic observations, thank you for sharing them! Particularly love that realisation that women are so rarely given endorsement for doing what they want.