The Eternal Daughter

An extraordinarily moving drama of celebration, regret, creation, loss, and family, this latest feature by writer-director Joanna Hogg grabbed my heart in an icily intimate embrace and then refused to let go.

Swinton pulls off a rare trick with such conviction that you find yourself forgetting she’s doing it: playing the two leading roles in the film herself.

Tilda Swinton gives two stunning performances...

How can a movie that seemingly does so little amount to so much? It’s because of the story lurking beyond it all -- the psychological battle being waged, so quietly, under the surface of everything.

Very slow, very methodical, very moody and you do feel like you're in a ghost story... but it has a sense of dissatisfaction.

What separates this film is the delicate handling of what both parents and children want from each other. Setting it as a ghostly, dreamlike story, Hogg is able to reveal truths while also showing the aspirational ideal of such relationships.

As its mysteries and emotions gradually pay off, it rewards viewers' patience.

The Eternal Daughter is not Joanna Hogg’s first haunted house film. But it’s the first to openly lean into and acknowledge the conventions of gothic horror.

“‘The Eternal Daughter’ can be viewed independently from the pair of stories starring Swinton’s own daughter Honor Swinton Byrne, but the in-world connections provide an extra layer of enjoyment.”

A lot of the success of The Eternal Daughter rests on the shoulders of Swinton, and it is a tour-de-force performance, one of the year’s best. Her work is so subtle and precise that after a while you forget that mother and daughter are one actor.