The Daughter (La Hija) 2021 — Movie Review
The most important thing about this movie that I think you should know right away, is that its almost perfect pacing
is superior to most of the Spanish movies I have seen so far, and I have seen dozens of them.
The movie starts with a slow but beautiful prairie shot of the main character Irene, walking towards Javier.
Irene is a 14-year-old pregnant girl (or shall I say a child) who decided to give her baby away as soon as her labor is over.
In return, she gets to stay at Javier and Adela’s Victorian-like style, humongous house (saying it’s a palace wouldn’t be too far off of it).
You will rarely ever be caught in a lackluster while watching a Spanish thriller movie.
There is something in their dialogues and their suspense that captivate your attention from the very beginning to the end.
The director didn’t spare any money on drones, the results are the magnificent prairie (the only thing their house is adjacent to) shots,
followed up with the soundtrack that permeates throughout the movie at just the right times.
The story is quite riveting and you can get a pretty good idea in what direction the storyline could go.
In my personal opinion (not that I am nitpicking) with such dialogues and the overall build-up, the movie could’ve been
significantly more captivating, had the plot revolved around the murder from the get-go.
Javier and Adela have the perfect life. Big, beautiful house, miles away from civilization, they are not hissing at one another like
a lot of couples their age. The whole nine… Or is it?
Adela can’t stay pregnant, so they crafted a perfect scheme — Irene’s baby in exchange for staying sheltered for a couple of months
at their mansion. Adela ties up a pillow, mimicking (or even emulating if you will) Irene’s pregnancy. That way nobody will be able to detect the dirty switcheroo.
The problem arises when Osman, the unborn baby’s father starts seeking for Irene and they both decide to keep the baby.
The next thing we know, Osman is missing, as if he evaporated into thin air — we don’t see what happened to him.
The director kept us in the dark with that one, but we, as well as Irene can put two and two together.
I suppose she took their words with a pinch of salt and kept working on her con nonetheless.
My problem with that was that we haven’t seen them do the ‘dirty deed’ nor have we seen much drama revolve around it. —
The nitty gritty — the details, the clues that the old detective could’ve found and placed the last piece of the puzzle in the right place.
Moreover, I was baffled even more when the detective inspected the house, without previously letting us know why in the hell would he
investigate his friends’ house with any plausible cause…
The second part of the movie is not as dense in dialogues nor pace, compared to the first half at least — No long dialogues nor tense plot, until the very ending. However that is not the be all end all when it comes to Spanish thrillers. It is rather the plot and characters themselves.
The thing that perplexed me was, why in the hell did they decide to go with a 14-year-old girl as the lead character in the first place?
The nuance itself is repulsive and having a pregnant kid is redundant.
How come they didn’t go with an 18-year-old girl instead? Couldn’t quite put my finger on it until the very last few sequences of the film.
However, the ending gave me the answer I was looking for…
Ever since you were a tiny fledgling to your late teens, you were always kind of scrutinized and
oppressed to a degree, and put under surveillance whether it was by your own parents, grandparents or society.
As if you were never trusted to have been worthy of making your own choices.
Judged after each path you took, whether it was well thought out or not. Blamed and suspected of being immature left and right…
Don’t get me wrong, you must have guidance in life, it is both the Yin and the Yang, rather only one of them.
There are times when you must obey your elders and follow their script, and there are times you mustn’t, because you have
to take the high road.
Thus, the director’s choice to go with a petit ‘14-year-old rebel ‘ — to make the 14-year-old kids in us empathize to the story, and
most importantly to convey the moral of the story itself.
There is a scene where the girl finally gives birth to her infant daughter, and briefly after Camila grasps the baby and
descends down the stairs as Irene keeps her weary eyes on her baby.
Any attempt that she would’ve had, would’ve been futile.
Scenes like taking nails out of plywood with nothing but a spoon, before going full ‘Kill Bill’ have never been seen (at least I haven’t)
in a movie ever before. The instance itself is awe-worthy.
Mother’s primal instinct to save her offspring and her pure and unconditional love, have never, and will never
be topped.
The movie has a satisfying ending if I ever saw one.
Tarantino-like last very few minutes of the film are just the cherry on top as well as the slow glare between the girl
and the two dogs, as she positioned herself between her baby and the wild hounds, you can clearly notice in her look
that she’s no longer afraid for her own life, nor she is questioning her demeanor.
One could say that she grew up overnight.
Strong, stern and bold woman taking matters into her own hands, dealing with things that need to be dealt with.
Turning the other cheek is no longer an option.
Like a lioness guarding her cub from the stalking scavenger.
She is no longer a goofy, jaded teen, uncertain what to do next.
Irene is no longer a kid. Now, she is a mother.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐+
Damir Sljivic aka Damirowsky
