Venice Days review - THE DAUGHTER by Simon Stone
The power of the screenplay, excellently balanced despite its labyrinthine soap operatic structure, is excellently supported by the top class cast. ODESSA YOUNG as the titular daughter is not only the glue that keeps many of the emotions of the film together, but also a genuine representation of a sexually precocious and fun-loving but also tender and benevolent soul.
Ultimately, however, the film's slight focus on the friendship between the sons of the two families, one from the working class the other from the wealthy one, also allows SCHNEIDER and LESLIE to particularly shine in their relatively opposing personalities in a way that recalls the pivotal complicated friendship of HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON? by JENNIFER JOHNSTON.
As mentioned earlier, THE DAUGHTER widely ignores the stereotypical representation of its rural setting, both in style and language. The film's soap operatic tangles and serious themes of trauma remind one of DOUGLAS SIRK, but more than that the film narratively speaking seems a faithful descendant of the golden age of DOGMA 95, and more particularly the latter dramas of THOMAS VINTERBERG. On top of the theme of broken families and secrets, the comparison seems welcomed by ANDREW COMMIS' cinematography, whose widescreen photography allows the Australian woods a tasteful Scandinavian zest, flattering its quietness that mirrors the unsaid, the very handling of which is able to keep a viewer genuinely emotionally invested from start to finish with its many well timed twists and realistic human and sometimes even purposefully uncomfortably truthful outlook on relationships between spouses, partners, friends, fathers, sons and, of course, daughters.