His Three Daughters

Three sisters congregate in a New York apartment to attend the final few days of their father’s life. They bring with them years of barely-repressed jealousy and resentment, as well as wildly different personalities. The oldest, Katie (Carrie Coon), believes she’s the responsible one, and she doesn’t feel the need to mask her disdain for Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), who smokes pot and is perfecting the art of sports betting. The youngest, Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), tries to keep the peace but knows it’s a losing battle. As for their father, it’s only a matter of time…

Azazel Jacobs’ finely honed melodrama mines the awkward, painful humour that anyone who’s been on a prolonged death-watch will recognize, as well as the fraught emotions that come with sleep deprivation and the anticipation of an inevitable, irreparable loss. If the film often feels like a stage play, it’s in the best way: it reminds us of Chekhov and that characters can have deep, complicated and often contradictory feelings, feelings that they don’t always recognize even when they’ve blurted them out.

Top-drawer performances keep us glued to the screen. And the unwinding, when it comes, will leave not a dry eye in the house.

It’s difficult not to be obliterated by tears and memories of loved ones long past gone. The heartbreaking plunge into sisterhood and grief that is His Three Daughters is an intensely composed elegy about the devastating effect of saying goodbye to a parent.

Robert Daniels, Screen Daily

His Three Daughters asks major questions but distills them down to this precise story, life’s biggest worries in jewel box miniature.

Kate Erbland, Indiewire