Director: Azazel Jacobs
Writer: Azazel Jacobs
Stars: Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen
Synopsis: This tense, touching, and funny portrait of family dynamics follows three estranged sisters as they converge in a New York apartment to care for their ailing father and try to mend their own broken relationship with one another.
Every so often, a film comes along that delivers a profoundly poignant punch, lingering with you long after it’s over. His Three Daughters is that film—a beautifully complicated slice of sour family drama with a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel that few can truly experience. You know the feeling: that moment when you have so much to say to a loved one on their deathbed. You convince yourself you’re helping them when, deep down, you secretly long for them to comfort you as they pass away and let you know everything is going to be alright.
This moment in Netflix’s His Three Daughters cuts through all the family angst, resentment, and uncomfortable silences, the ones you hope will wash away before your time is up—because nothing is more precious than time.
Very few films resonate as deeply and meaningfully as His Three Daughters. This chamber drama owes much to French Exit’s Azazel Jacobs’ exceptional script and its knockout cast. The film stars Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne as the three daughters of Vincent (an outstanding Jay O. Sanders), who is in the final stages of cancer and receiving at-home hospice care.
Jacobs paints a straightforward picture, stripping away most of the melodrama surrounding the realities of Vincent’s hospice care. Coon plays Katie, the eldest sibling, who is accustomed to taking on the parent role and wants everything in order, including a Do Not Resuscitate order. Wisely, the film handles this mainly in the abstract, as Vincent is not “alert enough to sign one.”
For instance, “accidents” can happen with too much medication, or there may be delays in calling paramedics, allowing nature to take its course. Rudy Galvan portrays Angel, the hospice doctor, with a strange yet compelling mix of empathy and bluntness. This rubs Katie the wrong way, while Olsen’s Christina, a former free spirit with kids at home, appreciates it.
Olsen portrays Christina with middle-child ambiguity, which becomes especially effective when she is finally pushed to her limits. Then there’s the third daughter, the youngest, who appears to be an irresponsible screw-up but is the invisible shoulder no one seems to realize they are leaning on. Lyonne plays Rachel, a pot-smoking betting pro who loves a good three-team parlay as much as a fat blunt with a Snoop Dogg stamp of approval.
Katie walks all over her, but Rachel has learned to stay quiet and not rock the boat—a common trait for a sibling who has felt like an outsider with her sisters her entire life. Jovan Adepo plays Benjy (Fences, The 3 Body Problem), Rachel’s boyfriend, who encourages her to stand up for herself. As the film progresses into the second and third acts, sparks fly, and words leave their marks.
While I wish Azazel’s script had more hidden revelations, I came to appreciate how he refuses to pander to melodrama. Each argument concludes with subtle nonconformity and no easy answers. Not every family fight will end with both parties understanding each other. In fact, unlike his pretentious previous film, the filmmaker now seems to understand that each will more likely refuse to see the other’s side.
All three actresses are revelations in their roles. However, for me, Coon is exceptional here, delivering a much more intricate and complex portrayal that conveys prickly, abrasive alienation alongside a hint of vulnerability. However, when it comes to showstoppers, everyone stand and allow long-time actor Jay O. Sanders to take a bow. His catatonic Vincent performs a jaw-dropping monologue portrayed with a man’s visceral and anxious vulnerability, knowing his last moments are upon him.This final scene, and Sanders’s Oscar-worthy supporting turn, is ultimately therapeutic and one of the most healing you will see in recent memory. His Three Daughters illustrates that accepting death is just as important as living it, and no moment should be wasted.
