The Eternal Daughter – a study in grief, guilt and childlessness (QFT from Friday 24 November)

Julie returns to a sprawling country hall her Mum used to visit. She’s there to write a screenplay about the mother-daughter relationship and mark her Mum’s birthday. Tilda Swinton plays both Julie and elderly mother Rosalind. The former struggles to sleep and is in a constant state of distraction that prevents progress on the new script. The distant latter pops sleeping tables like mints and when she’s not dozing, dredges up fateful memories of previous stays in the venue.

The Eternal Daughter begins with a taxi winding its way up rural roads through thick fog that is so ever-present on screen that it might be listed in the credits as a cast member. The film settles into its groove of Gothic ghost story, exploring grief, guilt and childlessness. All the while the wind howls, the windows rattle, the building groans, and Louis the dog (Swinton’s own pet) adds warmth (and whimpers) to the lonely scenes.

Joanna Hogg’s film is the latest in the chain of sparse Covid productions that enjoy small casts rattling around vast locations. At times, the warren of corridors and intimidating central staircase visually nudge the movie towards the horror genre. Carly-Sophia Davies is rather brilliant as the belligerent hotel receptionist who excels at customer disservice and seems to be in the middle of her own off-stage personal drama. In the otherwise empty hotel, the night shift is covered by Bill (Joseph Mydell) who shares his perspectives on loss with the morose Julie.

Swinton revels in the two parts written for her by frequent collaborator Hogg. Long stretches of storytelling are devoid of dialogue, with Swinton able to convincingly convey Julie’s emotion and inner turmoil through gestures and movement. We watch as a middle-aged daughter wakes up to how her parent views and judges her life choices, aware that it is now too late to change the outcome.

The Eternal Daughter is being screened at Queen’s Film Theatre from Friday 24 November. Bring a warm jumper or a fleece: all that fog would chill your soul!

  

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