Italian Storytelling: The Lost Daughter & The Hand of God

As we head into the first long weekend of 2022, it's time to see what Netflix has on deck. If you spent New Year's Day bingeing your way through the new seasons of Queer Eye and Cobra Kai, perhaps you need a change of pace. In which case, I bring you two films that are guaranteed to be awards contenders this year. I would say I found these movies mostly intriguing rather than pleasing, but nonetheless, it's worth giving them a try.

The Lost Daughter: Written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, based on the novel by Elena Ferrante, and starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley, this is a "woman's picture" through and through. The original novel is set in Italy (like most Ferrante novels) and the characters are all Italian, but in this adaptation, the setting is a Greek island and the characters are all British or American so the actors can do their regular accents (well except for Jessie Buckley who has to sound English as she is playing the younger version of Olivia Colman's character). This is the story of a professor named Leda (Colman), who has arrived in Greece for a holiday. She runs into a raucous Greek-American family on the beach, and while they initially clash, she ends up befriending Nina (Johnson), who is a young and exhausted mother of a three-year-old girl. Leda can relate to Nina's depression over being a young mother, and in flashbacks, we see how the young Leda struggled with taking care of her own two daughters.

The story unwinds slowly, ratchetting up the tension as you piece together some of Leda's history, as well as speculate on how exactly this "friendship" with Nina is going to turn out. This is mostly a tale of motherhood and resentment, and how "children are a crushing responsibility." The fathers, naturally, seem to be mostly absent when it comes to the business of child-rearing, and the women are struggling to establish their own identity while having a child constantly clamor for their attention. This film re-emphasized to me how having children is an absolute nightmare, but for people who already have kids, they will probably sit in judgment of these women and claim that they are just bad mothers. 

I always knew Olivia Colman as an incredible comic actress from her work in many British sitcoms. But lately, the world simply knows her as this incredible dramatic actress who can cry on cue. In this film, we see a stupendous spectrum of emotions flitting through her face, and yet she is also such an enigma, a woman who is complicated and conflicted, and doomed to make many mistakes. It's a fascinating performance, and while ultimately, I didn't much care for this story (a problem I have had with a lot of Ferrante's work in general), I had to admire the actors and Gyllenhaal's impeccable direction. This is a visually striking and emotionally evocative mood piece, and while it can be a bit difficult to watch, it's certainly well worth a viewing.

The Hand of God: An Italian film written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, this is the tale of Fabietto Schisa (played wonderfully by Filippo Scotti), a teenage boy in 1980's Naples, and the events that shaped him into the man he will become. I wasn't aware this film was autobiographical, but it felt so lived-in and specific that I suspected it reflected Sorrentino's own adolescence, and turns out I was right. Towards the end, there's a wonderful explanation of why he wanted to become a filmmaker that is rather devastating and really strikes a chord.

Now, that being said, this is a movie by Paolo Sorrentino, the man who gave us The Young Pope. Which means it is insanely weird, and over-the-top, and very Italian in its sensibility (i.e. get ready for a lot of female nudity and a rather classically European sex scene). As I watched this film, my immediate impression was, oh this is Italian Licorice Pizza, and we all know how I felt about that movie. Thankfully in this film, the auteur is only writing about his own experience, rather than trying to shoehorn in too much of the experience of another woman, so I was spared any manic pixie dream girl caricatures. I still don't love the depiction of most of the women in this film - there's a running gag about Fabietto's sister who is always in the bathroom, you will see a LOT of his depressed Aunt Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri) who spends most of the film being called a whore, and the broader Schisa family seems to be composed of women who are either grumpy matriarchs or desperate for a husband. There is a very loving depiction of Fabietto's mother though, played by the wonderful Teresa Saponangelo, a woman who likes to play pranks and juggle oranges, but also has to endure her own share of tragedy. 

Give this movie a try. It's definitely a vibe, and you'll get a hefty dose of Italy if you're feeling confined and need to travel from your couch for a few hours. There were moments that genuinely made me laugh out loud and then there were some heartbreaking scenes. This film showcases how bizarre your extended family can be and the adventures you can have with these raucous weirdos. But ultimately, it's a film that accurately captures the emotional rollercoaster of adolescence and what a formative period it can be in determining your destiny.