THE DAUGHTER (Simon Stone). 96 minutes. Opens Friday (July 1). See listing. Rating: NN
This ludicrously melodramatic adaptation of The Wild Duck makes mincemeat of Henrik Ibsen’s play about a man who returns home after years, discovers family secrets and makes bad choices because of them.
None of the relationships makes any sense, thanks to screenwriter/director Simon Stone’s refusal to give us any of the information we need. This is his first feature, and it shows: cue the slo-mo and the pathetically ponderous choral score.
It’s unusual to see Geoffrey Rush play this kind of heavy – he’s a man with a weakness for younger women and has shut down his mill with little concern for the future of his workers – and he does it well. Paul Schneider as his drunken son and Odessa Young as a teenager coming of age are fine.
But the script is catastrophically clunky. Stone adapted The Wild Duck for the screen while directing a production of the play at the Barbican in London. It’s not at all clear what he was thinking.
I laughed at the wrong places.
