His Three Daughters
It is believed that the best way to expose the imperfections of bad movies is by making a better one. This year, at TIFF, there were two films about three sisters and their father which inadvertently did exactly that. One of them is artificial and insincere even by this year’s standards; the other one is among the greatest dramas I’ve seen in a while.
So let’s start with Azazel Jacobs’ “His Three Daughters,” an extremely moving and powerful film that captures the hazy, surreal, and unpredictable zone around death for people close to it better than anything else in years. It’s basically a three hander, feeling very much like a play at times but allowing Jacobs to trust his actresses all three do some of the best work of their already impressive careers. That alone would make it notable; as it stands, it is something more a beautiful movie about death that never settles for easy answers about its complexity or shifting nature but instead investigates them deeply and personally. “His Three Daughters” is also deceptively simple in how it suggests that loss doesn’t just leave a vacuum; sometimes it obliterates not only what was there but also everything else around it.
The film (which Jacob also wrote) begins by defining its three leads quite clearly. Katie (Carrie Coon) is a very Brooklyn mother who also happens to be the eldest sibling out of these three sisters and therefore feels compelled to take control as their father enters what seems likely will be his last days on Earth; she constantly talks about her plans, including getting him to sign DNR soon. Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), on the other hand, has been taking care of Dad for some time now but spends most of her days gambling on sports when she isn’t smoking weed or doing other drugs; she strikes me as someone who doesn’t exactly plan ahead if you know what I mean? This of course allows Katie to openly judge her. And then there’s Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), the sister from out of town who talks about her daughter all the time and does yoga in the living room, which annoys Katie greatly.
At first glance, these three look like cliches, but Jacobs’ script subtly and brilliantly blurs those lines until we realize that these simple definitions are not only wrong but also insufficient. We tend to put people in boxes when it comes to those we love one of my favorite lines among many great ones in this movie is when Katie says, “No one will let me be anyone else.” But is she really just an obsessively responsible person or has she been forced into that role by how others see her?
The great thing about “His Three Daughters” is that none of this happens through forced revelations; instead, all it takes is a few conversations between characters who hardly ever leave one apartment throughout the film. And when they do finally venture outside near its end I won’t say why it feels so true, so vulnerable, so right. It made me think not just of people I’ve lost but also those still around whom I don’t know well enough yet. I should call my sister.
While “His Three Daughters” hums with real characters, Kristin Scott Thomas’ “North Star” couldn’t be farther from them. The actress turned director has played many challenging roles in her career but unfortunately gives nothing interesting for any members of this talented ensemble cast to work with here instead, she saddles them with obvious issues that must be solved before credits roll on screen most depressingly though being a story about three women which defines them almost exclusively through their partners and children, everyone involved deserved better than what they got here!
Thomas is playing Diana a woman who has lost two husbands. It’s based on Thomas’ childhood, she lost two Navy pilot fathers, biological and then step so it’s clearly something she’s been thinking about her whole life. She’s marrying a kind man again, which brings her daughters back to England for the wedding. Katherine (Scarlett Johansson) is a Royal Navy officer with a son and a partner (Freida Pinto), with whom she is in some sort of conflict at the start of the movie that is left undefined. And she keeps having animated flashbacks to when she was young, saying goodbye to a father who would disappear on mission. Clearly the wedding has sparked buried emotions.
Katherine is joined by Victoria (Sienna Miller), introduced as a semi-successful actress giving background exposition on a talk show, and sister Georgina (Emily Beecham). Victoria has a wealthy beau who is essentially trying to buy her love but she’s drawn to local she had childhood crush on who has returned for the wedding. Georgina gets stuck with cheating husband story line that Victoria literally hires private detective to bust on their wedding day in subplot could politely be called sitcom-ish.
If this sounds clichéd and hard to believe well it’s even more than you’re probably thinking. Every scene consists of people talking about their problems or emotions related to those problems, and none of it feels like real life. It’s really too bad because obviously this cast is strong; Miller is generally underrated, and Beecham does as much as she can here with very little Unlike Jacobs’ work, “North Star” doesn’t trust its cast or audience I’ve seen too many of these here this year.
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