Directed By Joanna Hogg

Starring – Tilda Swinton, Carly-Sophia Davies, Zinnia Davies-Cooke

The Plot – In this ghost story from acclaimed filmmaker Joanna Hogg, a middle-aged daughter (Swinton) and her elderly mother (Also Swinton) must confront long-buried secrets when they return to their former family home, a once-grand manor that has become a nearly vacant hotel brimming with mystery.

Rated PG-13 for some drug material

The Eternal Daughter | Official Trailer HD | A24 – YouTube

POSITIVES

Ghost stories are typically one thing to everyone, but Hogg constructs a profoundly rich and deviated perspective on the concept that not only leads to a compelling narrative through slowly meticulous waters of storytelling, but also helps to reevaluate the definition of haunted. In this respect, it’s the memories of the past that haunt our duo of protagonists, sifting through many uniquely intriguing conversations and confrontations between mother and daughter that feel like years in the making, with Hogg’s marvelous attention to detail casting emphasis in unforeseen framing device in everything from the eerie, unsettling isolation of the hotel, to the minimal ensemble decorating it, each with their own defining characteristics that play effectively towards the thickness of the setting’s atmospheric conscience. This brings forth what I truly feel is Hogg’s best direction to date, both in the three-dimensional outlines of her characters, as well as the meaning in merit behind the shot composition, which leads to some of the single best framing that I have experienced this year, with alien lighting, floating fog, manipulative sound design and darkly deceptive hallways feeding into the submersion of something deeper lurking constantly beneath the surface. There are no jump scares, which I appreciate, just thickly conductive tension in the midst of this stuffy, stunted interaction, cementing an edge of your seat captivity that remains present throughout 90 tensely chilling minutes. Equally integral is the decision to incorporate as little music as possible to the duration of the experience, which only further refines the air of aforementioned environmental aspects that play like a chorus of lost souls of things that go bump in the night, with nothing but the ears of those lodged to face their humbling persistence. Sometimes it’s best to know when music could only dampen the authenticity of the environment, and in this case Hogg’s wisdom to omit it almost entirely from the canvas is one that pays off in spades towards illustrating the isolation and disconnect that both of these ladies’ face within themselves and each other. In addition to this, Hogg’s constant collaborator, Swinton, turns in another thunderous triumph, but this time while pulling double duty as both the mother and the daughter at the forefront of this story. As the elder, Tilda imbeds a psychological hesitance and physical vulnerability that vividly conveys the weight of her miles traveled throughout a life of highs and lows, and as the daughter, Swinton supplants a stirring curiosity to Julie that continuously drives the narrative, all the while deconstructing the frail vulnerability within herself that until this stay has remained suppressed among the work she constantly buries herself in. Then there’s the twist itself, which is easy to interpret almost immediately, considering this feels like a world far from reality. It is one that I did see coming in some capacity, but what’s beneficial about it is how it completely deconstructs everything established previously about the aforementioned characters and setting, outlining a brilliance for Hogg that nearly reaches Charlie Kaufman levels of intricacy, with nuances and subtleties so particular that they all but demand an immediate rewatch to appreciate the full extent of their meanings. It’s not a twist that is particularly difficult to decipher, as the visuals of the climax illustrates it as clear cut as possible, but it is one that universally brings together the audience in the perils of outrunning the inevitable, which we all eventually experience, cementing a resolution that is every bit confrontational as it is therapeutic.

NEGATIVES

Aside from the occasional hinderances of predictability leading to detection within the confines of the twist framing device, I’m also left with minor pacing issues during the first act, which will inevitably test audiences not as prone to slow burn storytelling. Part of the problem certainly pertains to the 90-minute run time, which affords little avenues of exploration initially to coherently interpret these characters and investment to their respective plights, but for my money the bigger problem is the glaring comparison to the superior second and third acts involving mountains of exposition and backstory, which make the first feel a bit bare. If they used this initial period to delve further into the history of the house, or the mother’s time in such, then I think it would’ve supplanted a deeper meaning to the introductory engagements, in turn alleviating the pressures of diminishing interests along the way, which essentially don’t dwindle until around the film’s halfway point. In addition to this, while there’s much I have accurately deciphered about the film’s shape-shifting twist, there’s one sequence that still doesn’t properly add up based on the designation of the rules. With insight from the director, this could potentially cure itself, but as it stands it raises far too many lingering questions for resolution in my first watch, giving “The Eternal Daughter” an incomplete essence of perfection.

OVERALL
“The Eternal Daughter” is a mesmerizing gothic ghost story, but not necessarily the kind reliant on supernatural frights to chill its audience. Instead, Hogg concocts a deep-seeded psychological stinger that grows all the more unrelenting the further we uncover about the memories of its characters, and when combined with the double duty of Swinton’s talents haunting the halls of this coldly damp and isolated interior, cements a profoudly poignant perspective on the fear of the inevitible that eventually catches up to all of us.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+