Film Review: Coon, Olsen and Lyonne Await Their Father’s Death in ‘His Three Daughters’

Death is not like in the movies, explains a character in “ His three daughters. Christina, played by Elizabeth Olsen, tells her sisters, Katie (Carrie Coon) and Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), a story about their father, who became particularly agitated one night while watching a movie on television after his wife passed away.

It’s not exactly a fun memory or a gift for either of them. After all, it’s also a movie about death.

The three women have gathered in their father’s small New York apartment to spend his final days. He’s barely conscious, confined to a room they watch in shifts as they wait for this agonizing, nonspecific clock to tick down. But even without the stress of hospice care, the tension would be high for Christina, Katie and Rachel, estranged and near strangers who are on the verge of losing the only thread that still binds them. Taken together, it’s a pressure cooker and a wonderful showcase for three talented actors.

Writer-director Azazel Jacobs has written and shot “His Three Daughters,” which can be seen on Netflix on Friday, as if it were a play. The dialogue often sounds more scripted than conversational (except for Lyonne, who makes it all sound like her own); the locations are essentially limited to a handful of rooms in the apartment, and the shared courtyard provides little respite.

Jacobs drops the audience into the middle of the situation, doling out background and information slowly and purposefully. Katie (Coon) is the first to deliver a monologue about the state of things as she sees them and how it’s all going to work out. She’s the eldest, a ball of anxiety, the mother of a difficult teenage daughter and the kind of person who can barely hide her disappointment or deep resentment. Katie also lives in Brooklyn, not far from her father but rarely visits him. Childcare duties have been left to Rachel (Lyonne), an unemployed drug addict who never leaves the house, likes to bet on football games and is about to inherit the apartment, much to the not-so-subtle resentment of her sisters. The youngest is Christina, a head-in-the-clouds, conflict-averse yogi and Grateful Dead fan who lives across the country and has had to leave her three-year-old daughter for the first time.

Jacobs isn’t afraid to allow both drama and humor to co-exist, to seep in at unexpected moments. There’s an undeniable absurdity to the act of writing an obituary for a loved one in a time as complicated as hospice, one that truly captures a life and a person and doesn’t sound like a list of biographical facts and positive attributes. Add to that the fact that Katie is also frantically trying to get a medical professional to the apartment to witness a do-not-resuscitate order. The women are torn by premature grief, wanting her to stay alive, but also for her to go quickly.

They’re all beautifully drawn and perfectly mysterious, even to themselves; Jacobs is too smart and too in tune with how humans are to give anyone a simple, straightforward explanation. They all make assumptions about each other, many of which are wrong or, at the very least, misguided. Coon, with her resonant, theatrical voice, is particularly suited to playing this slightly terrifying, blisteringly critical perfectionist. Lyonne, so good at cold deflection, manages to use that strangeness to hit a different kind of note: quiet heartbreak. And Olsen, playing a character, really shines in her nonverbal choices: a reaction, a moment alone that she doesn’t know she’s being watched. It won’t be surprising if any or all of them receive some recognition this awards season (unfortunately in a system that’s uniquely ill-equipped to honor small ensembles with three leads).

There are some movies that die quietly on the streaming platform (this one did get a small theatrical run), but “His Three Daughters” is one that seems a good fit for Netflix simply because of its ability to reach a larger audience than it would have a chance at in multiplexes. Watching it all unfold never fails to be fascinating, even with the temptation to keep your phone nearby. Whether you watch it alone or with a group, it may have something to do with your own relationship with your family members.

As for that initial criticism about movies not portraying death well? It’s probably still true. But films like His Three Daughters might help us understand the inevitable a little more.

“His Three Daughters,” a Netflix release streaming Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “language and drug use.” Running time: 101 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.