The Eternal Daughter follows Julie (Tilda Swinton) as she tries to piece together facts about her mother’s life (also Swinton) for a film. Has any good ever come from digging up family history?
The Eternal Daughter
Joanna Hogg (director and writer), Ed Rutherford (cinematography), Helle Le Fevre (editor)
Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies (cast)
September 11, 2022 (TIFF)
It’s coming up on Julie’s mother’s birthday in The Eternal Daughter and to celebrate, Julie has taken her mother to a hotel near Liverpool that once belonged to their family. Julie plans to interview her mother and uncover memories her mother has refused to share for all these years. But her mum isn’t forthcoming, forcing Julie to record her secretly. But the upside is that they can spend more alone time together. Right?
Unfortunately, not all her mother’s stories are pleasant. They make her dreadfully unhappy and that’s something Julie wants to avoid at all costs. It isn’t quite clear why Julie is so averse to seeing her mother sad—aside from wanting the best for your family, of course—but she’s absolutely heartbroken whenever she does cause her mother to relive a painful memory.
As the story progresses, we learn a bit more about the mother-daughter relationship and, as is always the case with families, things aren’t always as they seem. Writer-director Joanna Hogg has done intimate family stories before. Her trilogy of dramas featuring Tom Hiddleston—Unrelated, Archipelago and Exhibition—have some seriously tense scenes focused on family conversations. We know how awkward those can be!
The Eternal Daughter may be Hogg’s most intimate portrayal of family yet as she’s focusing on just two members of the family, and she’s tasked Tilda Swinton with playing both roles. We do see some other characters sporadically. Bill (Joseph Mydell) is a kindly hotel manager who lends Julia an ear. Carly-Sophia Davies plays the receptionist-cum-waiter-cum-housekeeper-cum-doesn’t this hotel have more staff? Davies is a delight. She is every hospitality worker at the end of her tether—sarcastic, annoyed (and annoying), and quick to say ‘no’ to any and every request. There’s one memorable scene that I will happily replay in my head. Julie and her mum ponder the menu at dinner time as Davies now on waitressing duties hovers impatiently, until finally snapping, “there are only four options!” The entire audience at my screening wheezed laughing at that.
And Davies is a great foil for reserved and eager-to-please Julie. The back and forth between them is hilarious and real because you know Julie is being her politest best and the receptionist just does not care.
Tilda Swinton is an excellent choice as The Eternal Daughter’s protagonist, Julie. Her distinctive features are ripe for the gothic genre and she can effortlessly emote concern, confusion, love, and heartbreak. This is a veteran actor we’re talking about and there’s not much Swinton can’t do. Her Julie is generous and gracious, overly so at times, but also quick to despair if something upsets her mother. Swinton plays Julie as a woman who is stuck—in the hotel, quite literally, because it’s hard to go anywhere in the dark and fog—but also in her work because she can’t get the stories she needs from her mother. Arguably, Julie is also stuck in life, and that becomes a bone of contention between her and her mother.
I did feel like the mother’s role could have been more nuanced. I sometimes thought her reserved reaction didn’t match Julie’s show of emotion. But the great thing about The Eternal Daughter is that there’s a reason for the mother to be so emotionless. It takes a while to be revealed but when it is, most things start to make sense.
Speaking of the mother, the makeup is excellent in this film. You can almost imagine you’re watching an older Swinton. The only thing negative is the mother’s wig. It was too perfectly coiffed at all times, even after the mother had been sleeping. But again, as I write this, I realise that there is an explanation in the film for it. Earlier oddness become clear as the movie goes on.
The Eternal Daughter uses the Gothic genre to perfection. The gloomy mansion-turned-hotel. The constant fog and cold. The strange noises at night. Glimpses of something, or someone, in the dark. All the elements are just right to tell an eerie and chilling tale. In fact, having seen the film, I’m beginning to think I quite like contemporary Gothic stories. The setting in particular was a dark feast for the eyes and I loved leaning forward in my seat, searching for the cause of the noises bothering Julie, or waiting intently for the next jump scare.
The interiors, too, more than align with the genre. The in-your-face wallpaper that’s an eyesore for anyone who isn’t staying at the hotel out of nostalgia. The clinical kitchen with way too many broken down machines. The long wooden hallways that amplify even the slightest footsteps. Hogg and production designer Stéphane Collonge put so much thought into this setting and how it appears to viewers. It’s a delight.
My only sticking point with The Eternal Daughter is the ending. It’s too predictable in its unpredictability. This is the ending one would expect from a creepy film about a daughter and her mother. I really wanted the ending to go in a different direction that would actually surprise me.
But I don’t really care that the ending wasn’t a huge ‘gotcha’ moment. I loved living in the world of The Eternal Daughter—though I wouldn’t be caught dead in that god-awful hotel. I enjoyed the tete-a-tete between mother and daughter. I adored the tussle between Julie and the receptionist. This is the feeling I want when I watch a genre film—pure escapism with a side of thought-provoking storytelling.
