His Three Daughters

His Three Daughters, a drama starring Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne, from writer- director Azazel Jacobs, feels much like a play for most of its 101-minute run time. This is not a complaint, at all. Indeed, the denouement of the film would not work even half as well if it were not stylized in this manner. Evoking playwrights such as Wilson, Albee, Miller and O’Neill, Jacobs has told a story about three women who are in very different places in their lives. The daughters of the title are waiting for their father to pass, a father who is very weak, only partially lucid and mostly spoken about by others.

Courtesy Netflix

In film, it is a maxim that you are shown and not told, yet here, you are told, rather than shown, but by being told, you are seeing. What you do not see is as important as what you do and what is left unsaid is maybe more important than what is. Featuring a very sparse cast, the film is able to maintain tight focus on what matters and its core themes of memory, love and the ties that bind. This is a film unafraid to have flawed characters but also one which does not ask you to judge them. More importantly, none of them will bore you. The equally tiny supporting cast is just as terrific, with Jose Febus as a security guard, Victor, and Jovan Adepo as Benjy, both getting great moments.

Indeed, it is when Benjy appears that the film truly begins to take flight, as this is the moment when the ground shifts and the sisters are forced to begin reconciling their bitterness and personal rages with the reality of what is happening.  Benjy, it turns out, has been there with Rachel the entire time Victor, the sister’s father, has been dying, and even before. “Where were you? Even though you live just over in Brooklyn, where the hell were you?” It is a moment that begins crystalizing everything. Katie, the eldest sister, played by Coon, has been running roughshod over her sisters but apparently everyone back home, as well. Christian, the Olsen character, is fed up with her sisters arguments, and with how they only ever agree when they are ganging up on her about her oddities.

This is a film that avoids the “sudden emergency makes the family bond” beat that so many plots hinge on. Instead, (spoilers) the film has given us the path forward. The sisters will have to talk their way through this, bonding over their memories of their father and being raised. They come together over what they have in common, and embracing the differences. They all love their father, and he loves them, a fact made plain when Jay O. Sanders gets his single scene as the father. He delivers a fantastic monologue about life, death and their city, before realizing it is all over. (end spoilers)

Courtesy Netflix

The film is about the healing power of time, love and memory. It is about finding common ground and focusing on what really matters. It is about disengaging from yourself long enough to consider how those around you relate to people. Each of this characters is sharply written and delicately, richly brought to life. The visuals of the film could be described as functional, yet the shot selection and editing tell a tale of creative minds fully aware of what they are doing. Everything here matters, and so much of the storytelling is-as mentioned-told yet just as much is shown. We do not need to see or hear certain things to know what it all means. This is not a still film, but it is a quiet, yet not cold one. One of the better films of the year.

His Three Daughters is now streaming on Netflix.