This is one of Netflix’s lower priority Oscar contenders. You can tell, because the release date for this is shit. Plus, they have the already anointed Emilia Perez, which is considered by basically everyone to be a lock for nominations, as well as Maria (with potential nominee Angelina Jolie), and The Piano lesson (with likely nominee Danielle Detweiler). Their strongest contender here is the biggest reason to see the film, and instead of running all of the daughters in supporting, they ran natasha Lyonne in lead. Dammit.
This is just a depressing film from start to finish. It feels like a play, as it rarely ever leaves this one apartment, and it features the titular daughters as they come together to wait for the seemingly imminent demise of their patriarch. And tose three daughters, Natasha Lyonne, Carrie Coon, and Elizabeth Olsen, could not be more different. And my reaction to their performances couldn’t have been more wide. I loved Natasha Lyonne, who has been quietly accumulating the acting chops over her very long career, to get to a role like this. She should be nominated, but lead actress is a stretch.Taking her comedic roles out of contention, because her sarcasm is just perfect for things like Poker Face, this is the best thing she’s ever done. She’s deeply broken, emotional, and divided from her siblings. She is the one thing that felt like I was watching a film. Carrie con, on the other hand, felt like she was in some bad community theater production of this show. Her performance felt like a performance. She felt disconnected to everyone and everything, and not in an intentional way. I got nothing from her, and she’s usually an exceptional actress. I don’t know if this is bad direction, or if Coon thought the film just read like a stage play, but she feels “on stage’ the whole time, while Lyonne feels lived in.
Olsen is basically the sister stuck in the middle. She’s not really leading any of the squabbling, and doesn’t get to show off much of her range, like we saw in Martha May Marcy Marlene. She can’t topple Lyonne, but she also seems to know she’s in a movie and not a play, giving her an edge over Coon. the imbalance, and the really cheesy ending kinda brought this film down a bit for me. But, Lyonne’sn acting is one of the best you’ll see this year, so I easily still recommend it.
The narrator really seemed to take his time, a very slow and methodically dramatic description. I’m impressed, as usually these things are based on how much time you have to get in as much as possible, and he speaks rather slowly. But, perhaps the lack of location changes, and small cast, made it easier to have what is effectively in itself a dramatic performance. I didn’t hate it, but I’d be remiss in not at least mentioning that he feels like he’s taking all the time in the world.
Films like this have been made before, where siblings meet to fight over the future of their ailing parents, so this one needed a very specific angle. It doesn’t really do that, it just manages to be a pretty safe film, with one memorable performance.
Final Grade: B