Writer-director Azazel Jacobs has deep feeling for actors, conversations and restricted spaces. The creator of The Lovers (2017) and French Exit (2020) has examined the brittleness of human relationship within homes and the back of cars, with characters who speak their minds, and through blade-sharp dialogue that has rare honesty.
In His Three Daughters, Jacobs assembles three marvellous actresses for a study of family dynamics. Jacobs elevates a familiar set-up – siblings come together after a long gap to attend to their terminally ill father – by paying close attention to what is being said by each of the daughters and how they navigate their New York City apartment.
His Three Daughters is out on Netflix. Although originally a theatrical release, the film’s availability on a streaming platform suits an intimate examination of lives forcibly yoked together by the possibility of death.
The cancer-stricken Vincent is receiving end-of-life care at home. Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), who has been living him, finds herself sharing the spacious apartment with her stepsisters Katie (Carrie Coon) and Christina (Elizabeth Olsen). Although Katie and Christina share a mother, they seem as estranged from each at times as they are with the pot-addicted Rachel.
The dialogue exchanges reveal the passive-aggressive behaviour that afflicts siblings who are too old to be sharing the same space. The burdensome sense of duty felt by the siblings is expressed through speech.
The film opens with a monologue by Katie that is both a brilliant piece of writing written as well as a showcase for Carrie Coon’s mastery. Katie leaps from one thought to another, contradicts herself, and reveals more of her conflicted feelings towards the situation than she possibly intended. Jacobs, who has also edited the film, allows this scene and others to play out in full, refusing to hurry the emotion along.
Christina is the peacemaker, trying to balance Kate’s borderline bullying with meaningless declarations. Rachel surfaces through her stoner haze every now and then, annoying Katie to no end.
The undeclared agony of waiting for a parent to shuffle off has its darkly comic notes. In their dealings with each other or with health worker Angel (Rudy Galvan), the women expose bits of themselves for scrutiny. There is no judgement in Jacobs’s screenplay, only the knowledge that a family needs hard work if it has to be remain meaningful.
The actresses are terrific, instantly distinguishing their characters but also finding the similarities that bind them. There is a “this is us too” recognition in His Three Daughters, with relatable characters, a crisis faced by numerous families, and an understanding that “like the roaches the leeches, somehow we keep making it through”, as a character memorably says.
