THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER Review: Hogg’s latest exploration of mother-daughter relationships

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Joanna Hogg fans will be more forgiving than most while watching The Eternal Daughter, the kind of
self-analytical autobiographical film in which the director’s avatar comes off as a very annoying figure
indeed. Even more explicitly than in The Souvenir Part II (yet considerably less involving), Hogg’s latest
exploration of mother-daughter relationships is unabashedly meant to mirror her own, with an
emotionally fragile upper-class filmmaker protagonist, played by Tilda Swinton, trying to write a movie about her emotionally insulated mother, played by Tilda Swinton: the stiff-upper-lip generation versus its opposite.

Set over a few sunless days in a lugubrious country house hotel swathed in mist, The Eternal Daughter is designed as a ghost story, but Hogg uses all the trappings in such a well-worn manner that the atmosphere feels dull rather than spooky, and the ending contains no surprise.

While impressive that most of the dialogue —pitch perfect, fully of its class – is improvised, and Swinton’s performance can be assigned to acting students, the conceit of using the actress for both roles creates a vacuum that’s rarely filled. Martin Scorsese’s presence as executive producer plus Hogg’s art house rep will translate into limited distribution. Apparently it was Swinton’s idea to play both roles, despite hardly needing to prove her versatility