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Nov 06, 2017CaptainHecto rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Loosely adapted from Ibsen's 'The Wild Duck', this is a skeletons-in-the-family-closet drama that deserves watching for its ambition rather than for what it actually achieves. The film is overlong, with some purposeless scenes that add nothing and should have been cut. But the big flaw is the motivation of the character who 'reveals the truth'. In Ibsen's play that character's motivation is central to the meaning of the drama. Here we don't really know why he goes ahead and tells all. Maybe his own emotional failures make the continued happiness of others too hard to take? Maybe he hates his father enough to pull out the old skeletons? Or maybe he's just a miserable little sh*t? Anyhow, it's a harrowing tale that the audience grasps before the actors on the screen do. But whatever it's drawbacks, 'Daughter' passes the critical test for a decent film: you begin to discuss it as soon as the end credits start to roll. Worth seeing.