Leda is not a bad person. She's a person. She reflects the uglier parts of ourselves that we wish we couldn't see.

This was an astounding debut from Maggie Gyllenhaal. I think what she does best is creating an atmosphere of disorientation. Leda is in a new place, surrounded (literally) by people very different from herself, and left to walk this journey on her own. If I could characterize Leda's journey, I would say it's an exorcism of her demons. Gyllenhaal styles this in the likeness of a thriller - leading the audience to wonder whether Leda did something morbid in her past, only to flip the switch on us. Some, who are waiting for a major twist, may be disappointed by the film's final revelation. But I think its ominous tone evokes something more terrifying - a mundane horror that everyone has within them. It is a horror shared through knowing glances and soft touches between almost every woman Leda encounters in this film.

As I approach my later twenties, I feel obliged to consider the question of children. Do I want them? Will I be a good mother? The Lost Daughter confirms many of the fears that my friends and I have spoken about at one time or another. We know that not every woman has a maternal disposition - but many of us fear that we will be "that" woman. "That" mother. The Lost Daughter drives what is still largely a stigmatized discussion: motherhood does not come naturally to all, and sometimes it never will. Leda - selfish and cold as she may be, is all of us. Humanity is not defined by fixed tropes - it is defined by our collective failure to fulfill those tropes.

My only gripe is that I think Dakota Johnson was miscast - her soft demeanour and dreamy expressions did not seem to fit with the tone or aesthetic that Gyllenhaal had built for her. Nonetheless, I am rating this 4 and a half stars. I was hooked from the first scene - the hauntingly beautiful score, gorgeous visuals, and hazy setting lay the foundations for what is a very captivating film. Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley are riveting - they invoke such a perfect mixture of tenderness, humiliation, and cruelty into this character that makes her one of the most compelling female protagonists I've seen to date. I will think about The Lost Daughter for a long time.