The Daughter (2015)

A Brilliant Conflict

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Relationships -- they are messy. Family -- gets messy. This film -- messy.

So everyone in it are good, maybe even terrific. But what could have been a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions ends up being cowardly and lacking in conviction. In the end, just a lousy story that didn't know what story it wanted to tell.

This viewer did not believe a single character in this, not their jobs, their social status, their relationship to each other, their clunkily exposed past, the town/country they lived in...it's all highly manufactured, self-conscious drama for drama's sake with everyone concerned striving for tragedy or meaning, but looking faker and faker as one pretentious scene follows another. None of the personnel involved escape the curse of this contrived world from the very first scene.

'The Daughter' written and directed by Simon Stone is the big screen adaptation of a screenplay from the late nineteenth century. In this film we follow a character Christian who returns to his hometown only to discover an old family secret that can ruin the lives of those involved should this news come to light.This movie features many different subplots that slowly unfold while the bigger overarching story is taking place. These subplots are mostly meant to give the many characters some much needed backstory. One problem with them however is that most of them do not seem to develop in an organic way and appear forced. Another problem is that more often than not the outcome is extremely predictable. As soon as a situation is set up it is almost always clear how it will end and quite a few times characters would act out of character just to make this ending possible. The same is true for the main plot considering one of the main characters only exists to set up certain story elements. This character never has a concrete reason for most of his actions while a lot of times his behavior does has a very emotional impact on some of the other characters. Just like the many subplots the main story is as predictable as can be. There is never really a moment where you're left wondering what is about to happen and what is left is a movie that is slowly progressing towards its end. Over the course of the film a heavy emphasis is put on the characters. Most of the actors did a decent enough job to portray their character however the performance of Paul Schneider as Christian was simply abysmal. His performances never seemed genuine and whenever he appeared on the screen I was immediately taken out of the movie. This in turn made the performances of the other actors seem a lot worse than they actually were and ultimately there really is not a single performance that can be considered memorable. The directional style of Simon Stone also leaves much to be desired. There are some incredibly weird cuts during conversation and a lot of times the camera is focused on characters with their mouths closed while their voice can be hear from a shot that is about to follow. Now Stone did not fail completely as there are some gorgeous shots present in this film. These shots are mostly environmental ones and even though they are quite beautiful they almost always feel out place. The movies soundtrack also does not seem to fit the movie very well and a lot of times it appears to be forcing a certain emotion way to obviously. The basic premise of the film could have provided some interesting scenario's however the convoluted story, terrible soundtrack and poor writing have made this an impossible feat. In the end 'The Daughter' was a complete waste of time with few redeeming qualities. My rating: 4/10