Olivia Colman and Dakota Johnson star in the haunting trailer for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Lost Daughter’

Netflix has released the trailer for actress Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feature film directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, starring Academy Award winner Olivia Colman.

In The Lost Daughter, Leda (Colman) is a middle-aged divorcée devoted to her work as an English teacher and to her two children. When her daughters leave home to be with their father in Canada, Leda anticipates a period of loneliness and longing. Instead, slightly embarrassed by the sensation, she feels liberated, as if her life has become lighter, easier.

Alone on a seaside vacation, Leda becomes consumed with a young mother Nina (Dakota Johnson) and daughter as she watches them on the beach (“Children become a crushing responsibility.”) Unnerved by their compelling relationship, and their raucous and menacing extended family, Leda is overwhelmed by her own memories of the terror, confusion and intensity of early motherhood. An impulsive act shocks her into the strange and ominous world of her own mind, where she is forced to face the unconventional choices she made as a young mother and their consequences.

Review: With ‘The Lost Daughter,’ Maggie Gyllenhaal exposes mother-daughter relations in their vile, discomforting essence [Grade: B]

The film is based on the novel by Elena Ferrante and also stars Jessie Buckley, Academy Award nominee Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Dagmara Dominczyk, and Paul Mescal.

The Lost Daughter had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where Gyllenhaal received the award for Best Screenplay. It continued its successful festival run through Telluride, New York and Mill Valley film festivals. Netflix will release The Lost Daughter in select theaters on December 17 and globally on Netflix December 31.

Photo: Yannis Drakoulidis/Netflix