His Three Daughters Movie Review

If you find nothing else in this film, you will discover a treasure trove of passion. ​

This might not shock you if you’ve seen other Azazel Jacobs films like “French Exit” and “The Lovers.” One thing he does well is keep his fingers on the pulse of his characters and his cast. He has done that so well here that he has built the requisite film to watch if you’ve recently had or have been acquainted with loss in any way.

This movie is about three sisters seeing one another after a long time avoiding that. They’re at their father’s apartment. They don’t like the sight of one another, so keeping oneself occupied with the needs of their ailing father, walking around his apartment as if they’re all-knowing, is the best thing they can do to make it through a day with these other people they’re forced to deal with. There’s Katie, Christina, and Rachel, played by Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne. A better cast this year there could hardly be.

Katie lords over everyone. She treats everyone like they’re the teenage daughter she wishes she could know better and control more often. Christina avoids all by keeping her phone pressed to her ear so she doesn’t have to speak to people in the room. She wants to keep things civil, but when she can’t, she prefers to hide. Rachel is a hot mess; betting on sports and smoking pot are her things. She has been living in their dad’s apartment. She believes that alone should automatically earn her respect points for being there when no one else was. It doesn’t.

After some time, intense conversations dig into their past and present, creating deep wounds as to which daughter was there most for Vincent (dad, played beautifully by Jay O. Sanders) and who never was. The story is as complex as it is simply empathetic. Do the three hate one another or love too much? How do they show any emotion to the others? How will that emotion be interrupted… as weakness?

What is it with the comfy chair that sits in every living room in this country, and who sits in it but the one it was purchased for? Can it be sat in ever again once they leave us? The three all have a seat in Dad’s big chair. It swallows them whole as they each handle the chair and their being in it differently than the others. Slowly, much is revealed about these women and how each dealt with growing up… and how they can get through what’s going on with the man in the other room dying.

Jacobs was beloved before, but this is beautiful, and now so much will be expected of him going forward. Not a bad problem to have. The acting, especially by Lyonne, hit intimate moments on the nose. There are compelling, meaningful monologues any actress would kill to have in their resume. This story is accurate and thought-provoking, with an ending that will leave you grabbing your chest. You must add it to your must-sees of the year. When you do, it’ll leave you thinking about it for days after watching, making it one to see again.

See “His Three Daughters” the moment you get a chance. It’s not the typical “sitting at a parent’s bedside waiting for something to happen” narrative. The happening here is these fantastic actresses. They’re playing these women who are slowly revealing who they are, how they’ve grown, and how they need one another despite seeming the opposite is true. I don’t want to overdo it for you, but this film and its cast will be up for several Academy Awards. I’m looking very forward to seeing which they are and what they win.