Must-watch now: Desperate heroines in good movies

Credit: Netflix/YouTube

The Lost Daughter
Cast: Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris
Written by Maggie Gyllenhaal (based on the novel by Elena Ferrante)
Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal
Streaming on Netflix

Oscar pundits have declared Olivia Colman to be a frontrunner for this year’s Best Actress for her performance in The Lost Daughter. She’s indeed luminous as Leda, a university professor who travels alone to Greece to have a much-needed break in a beach resort.

Unless you’ve done some research on this film, you’d think it was a romantic movie about a lonely spinster who falls in love with the resort’s caretaker, played by Ed Harris. The first 10 minutes of the movie seems to lead toward that path, just like the types of movies Katharine Hepburn starred in later in her career.

But with The Lost Daughter, first impressions aren’t accurate. This one has a complex story with a perplexing heroine. So just when you thought a romance was about to kick off, the focus of the story suddenly veers to a little girl on the beach and her not-too-watchful young mother (played by Dakota Johnson). The child goes missing and it’s Leda who finds her. It so happens that the neglectful young mother is the neglected wife of a mobster. He’s never around much, and this gives the wife enough space to have a fling with a young resort employee.

Observing the young mother and daughter, Leda sees certain parallels to her own life. In a way, she too had lost her daughter. She had abandoned her family for her career. Through flashbacks, we learn that she had little patience for her children and she wasn’t supportive of her husband’s career. (Jessie Buckley plays the young version of Leda.)

Paced deliberately by first-time director Maggie Gyllenhaal (star of various Hollywood extravaganzas and Jake’s sister), The Lost Daughter is more of a character study and a psychological drama. What plot it has unfolds at a glacial pace. But you won’t get bored because the more you learn about the heroine, the more you want to know where it’s leading to.

The younger Leda was a drama queen as opposed to the now calmer and more mature Leda. Thus Jessica Buckley has the flashier role. But Colman commands the viewer’s attention, whether she’s just idly sitting around the beach observing the people, or flirting with Ed Harris. That’s how good the directing and acting are. They have you glued sans attention-getting filmmaking techniques and showy emoting.

Viewers may feel cheated by the story’s ambiguous denouement, especially after having watched Leda make such selfish choices. You’ll also probably complain about the not-too-alluring scenery and the unlikable protagonists. Frankly, I wouldn’t spend an hour in that place, what with all the obnoxious people toiling in it. I guess not every movie set in Greece is meant to be as cheerful as Mama Mia.

The Lost Daughter is streaming on Netflix.

Arisaka official poster

Credit: TEN17P/YouTube

Arisaka
Cast: Maja Salvador, Mon Confiado, Sheila Mae Romualdo
Written by Mikhail Red, Anton Santamaria
Directed by Mikhail Red
Streaming on Netflix

Its exotic title made us think this was a Tagalog remake of a Japanese film about a lovable dog. On the contrary, there is nothing loving about the plot of Arisaka. It’s a suspense thriller riddled with bloody confrontations. The body count should satisfy viewers who have a yen for violent action movies.

I’ve Googled this for you: The arisaka was a type of rifle used by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Apparently, the artillery of the soldiers who perished had been left scattered in the deep jungles of Bataan, where the American military surrendered. The site of the infamous Bataan Death March is also the setting of Mikhail Red’s Arisaka. (Strangely, however, the entire film was shot in Tarlac.)

The action immediately begins when a police convoy is ambushed. They had been escorting a politician who was about to present a damning list of names, all of them drug lords. It turns out that some of the police escorts are corrupt. The politician, with the innocent police officers, is gunned down. The lone survivor is a female officer played by Maja Salvador. She is wounded but she narrowly escapes. With the help of a young Aeta (Sheila Mae Romualdo), she goes on foot over the hills and through the jungles to get to the next town. They take the route used by the soldiers who escaped the Death March.

The meanest officer in the movie (played by Mon Confiado) embarks on a manhunt. Since Salvador has the evidence with her, she must be tracked down. Hence the chase begins in what is described as treacherous terrain. When our heroine runs out of bullets, she finds a loaded arisaka to defend herself.

Mikhail Red is a first-rate director of action movies. Fight scenes are expertly staged and virtuoso editing enhances the thrills. Set amid the picturesque hills, the movie is breathtakingly cinematic. It’s also rare for a local movie to give viewers that feeling of dread. Red delivers that, too.

While the movie’s use of historical and social backdrop is admirable, Red could have produced a better script. The plot, as it turns out, is highly derivative. Except for the setting, Arisaka doesn’t offer anything new. Yet because of the setting, the plot is implausible. Bataan is one of the tiniest provinces in the country and it’s just over two hours away from Metro Manila. Red makes it seem that Maja Salvador is searching for the Promised Land. Wake up call: It’s the 2020s, not the 1940s. She’s more likely to bump into mountain bikers or travel vloggers. So unless she climbed to the top of Mt. Mariveles, no place in Bataan is too remote or too far from a civilized barrio.

Maja Salvador looks too demure and pallid to be a highly skilled, expendable woman in uniform. There’s a lack of desperation in her acting. Mon Confiado is the reason the film is so suspenseful. He makes us hope Salvador finishes him off. This type of role is just a walk in the park for him.

It seems like a walk in the park for Salvador, too, because she always manages to look attractive, especially so when the Aetas give her a fresh set of clothes. The jeans and the shirt made for a sexy ensemble. She looked so “Instagramable.”

Arisaka is streaming on Netflix.

The Unforgivable official poster

Credit: Netflix/YouTube

Unforgivable
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis, Vincent D’Onofrio
Written by Peter Craig, Hillary Seitz, Courtenay Miles
Directed by Nora Fingscheidt
Streaming on Netflix

Also streaming on Netflix is Sandra Bullock’s latest star vehicle. In Unforgivable, she plays a convicted murderer. After 20 years in the slammer, she is released on parole but it’s not necessarily a happy occasion for her. Life in the halfway house for parolees is just slightly better than life in prison.

She’s also burdened by the fact that she’s been separated from her only relative. She had a much younger sister who was adopted by a couple (played by Viola Davis and Richard Thomas) after she was convicted. Of course, she’s desperate to reunite with her. Sadly, she’s been told not to find her sister, since she’s already living a happy life. The sister would be in high school by now and is a piano protégée. She has no memory of the tragedy that happened.

Also unhappy about her release are the adult sons of the man she killed. For them, 20 years isn’t enough punishment, especially since their father was a police officer. So they’re now stalking her every move with the intent to exact vengeance.

It’s an emotional rollercoaster for the heroine. She falls in love with a co-worker (Vincent D’Onofrio), only to find out he’s also on parole. They’re forced to break up because a parolee is prohibited from interacting with another parolee. And then she finally locates the house where her sister lives. There’s more drama to come.

Unforgivable is a watchable movie and it’s always nice to see a star of Bullock’s caliber do a film that doesn’t rely on CGI. The problem is, the movie tries to cover too many plotlines. It’s a family drama, a mystery suspense thriller, and an action thriller with a twist at the end.

Oh, and there’s the romance, as well. Rest assured all these are well written and acted. It’s just that the movie is longer than it should be. We would have been happy with just two of those genres because as it is, the movie has too many endings. Just when you think the issues are resolved, here come the children of Bullock’s victim, out to ruin things.

Bullock carries the movie even if she tries to mute down the elements that make her such a charismatic star. She wears no make-up and she always looks sullen. But she’s brilliant in a confrontation scene with the steel-willed adopted mother of her sister, played by none other than the great Viola Davis. She brings the movie up to the level of art. To her credit, Bullock isn’t upstaged, and together they create one of the most intense movie scenes of the year. Duels between two divas are rare these days, so if only for that confrontation, watch Unforgivable.

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