Movie review: His Three Daughters like a stage play, reminiscent of King Lear

His Three Daughters stars Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon and Natasha Lyonne. Photo / Sam Levy, Netflix

His Three Daughters (R, 101mins), streaming on Netflix

Directed by Azazel Jacobs

Reviewed by Jen Shieff

Writer and director Azazel Jacobs captures the intensity and pathos of a family, three semi-estranged sisters who reunite, sort of, as their widowed father lies dying in the care of disengaged hospice workers.

Set in a small Manhattan apartment with only three main characters, His Three Daughters’ narrow scope seems more like a stage play than a movie.

The action centres on three sisters whose off-screen dying father Victor (Jay O. Sanders) has impacted all of them in different ways.

Middle daughter, ageing hippy Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), is closest to him and has been his caregiver until the hospice stepped in.

The eldest, critical and overbearing Katie (Carrie Coon, seen recently as Bertha Russell in The Gilded Age), wants to take charge, while the youngest, yoga-obsessed Christina (Elizabeth Olsen, a long way from her Avengers role as Wanda Maximoff), wants constant connection with her husband and child in California, rather than her sisters.

Rachel is the only one with any apparent feeling for the dying man in the room along the corridor.

As the vigil proceeds, so does the domestic drama.

Family issues are well handled: loyalty, caring, responsibility, favouritism, or perceptions of favouritism and above all, connection.

Much of the film is reminiscent of King Lear, and although nobody ever says “I’m the one who loves him most”, that competitive undercurrent is there.

When much that’s been unspoken is finally said, accusations mount up, blowing over in a climactic scene.

The sisters’ simmering resentment of one another is realistic, as are the kinds of wounds from the past that fester and threaten to reopen.

The familiar apartment with its tired furniture is a perfect backdrop for the raising of old scores and for showing how Katie and Christina see Rachel’s squeeze Benjy (Jovan Adepo) as an intruder, an opinion borne out when he loses his cool, drumming home how Rachel has borne a heavy burden for years.

Rachel is a very likeable character, her bitterness and withdrawal into pot-smoking and online gambling perfectly understandable.

Do Not Resuscitate orders, what they mean and when they should be invoked are one of many current issues dealt with, as is what should be covered in an obituary.

When Katie snidely refers to hospice aide Angel (Rudy Galvan) as the Angel of Death, she seems harsh, but she shows the vulnerability of a person who is used to being in control having to acknowledge somebody else holds the trump card.

Meanwhile, Angel shows how overwork can result in less compassion than might be expected, as he steers towards letting Victor’s passing be over as soon as legally possible.

Rachel, sitting on the park bench outside her apartment block, where she ignores the half-hearted attempts by security guard Vincent (Jose Febus) to get her not to smoke pot in public, is particularly endearing.

Despite her escapist tactics, she seems to want to relate to her sisters, but their self-interest means any closeness to them is likely to be fleeting.

★★★★