The Daughter
Director: Simon Stone
Talent: Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill, Ana Torv, Odessa Young
Release Date: 27th May
Attempts to transpose storytelling of a certain era and culture to one of the contemporary period are fraught with potential dangers. So we get “Shakespeare, but in a Michelin star restaurant”, or “Sophocles, but in a tech startup”, but how about Ibsen in recession-hit, rural Australia?
The story of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, which touches on the largely universal themes of secrets, infidelity, parenthood, heartbreak and homecoming, is undoubtedly a fine one. However, a crucial plot point, centring around biological versus social fatherhood, seems lost in translation between the cultural shorthand of its day and mainstream attitudes in 2016, insofar as it feels dramatically unsatisfactory in Stone’s adaptation. Of course, we suspend our disbelief when we enter the cinema theatre, but it begs the question, why transport this story to the present day in the first place? Uneven performances from all but Geoffrey Rush do little to justify a generally passable drama.
Words: Oisín Murphy-Hall
