His Three Daughters is a heart-rending examination of sibling relationships
Streaming Movie Review - Drama - Netflix
Sibling relationships are fascinating to me. We grow up with these people and often share the same genetics, so there is an expectation that we will have similar temperaments, outlooks, and lifestyles. However, learning to be your own person as you grow often includes detaching from your family of origin, and sometimes that leads to rifts between siblings. This shifting dynamic is explored with gut-wrenching beauty in the newest film from writer and director Azazel Jacobs, “His Three Daughters,” coming to Netflix this week.
Katie (Carrie Coon), Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), and Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) all meet at their father’s apartment as they await his final days in home hospice. The three sisters have a strained relationship, and the stress of watching their father die intensifies this disparity in the way they relate to one another. Katie’s need to manage everything is at odds with Rachel’s more laissez-faire attitude, and Christina finds herself between the two, trying to keep the peace while also searching for moments of connection with her dying father. Disagreements about the past, anger about the present, and uncertainty about the future all swirl together to create a firestorm from which these three women must try to emerge intact.
The loss of a parent is difficult to process in the best of times, and this film explores that with an incredible amount of empathy and deliberateness. The discussions with the hospice workers, the lashing out at safe targets, and the petty arguments that flare into screaming matches all have a sense of realism that leaves the viewer uncomfortable while also drawing them in.
The performances are some of the best this year. It’s hard to speak about them individually because each one is fed by the others in a gorgeous loop. All three of the main actors bring an incredible amount of talent to their roles, but rather than canceling one another out, each strengthens the other. They are archetypes, yes, but they are also deeply lived-in characters.
The film takes place almost entirely within the apartment, but it avoids feeling claustrophobic outside of the moments that it must. “His Three Daughters” feels like it was written for the stage, but that doesn’t translate to something that is awkward to watch. The shooting, blocking, editing, and direction all put us right in that living space, allowing us full access to the unfolding drama within.
Losing a parent is an incredibly stressful event. It can leave you feeling unmoored and uncertain. Moving through that experience with people who you knew in one season but perhaps don’t know as well now can make that loss far more painful because it is a reminder of other losses. “His Three Daughters” highlights the erosion that sometimes happens between siblings, but it is also a stunning reminder of the bonds that can exist among family and how we can find our way back to one another if we’re willing to listen.
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on September 14, 2024.
So curious about this one. Namely because I have two sisters and naturally look for the matches!