Alexandra Daddario Gives A Brave And Stirring Performance In “Lost Girls & Love Hotels”

In “Lost Girls and Love Hotels,” Margaret (Alexandra Daddario) is a beautiful, deeply troubled American in Tokyo. She instructs flight attendants in English pronunciation during the day. By night, she puts her hand in the flame of copious booze and bondage-infused sex with “functional strangers.” Little of her backstory is revealed; we meet her mid-plunge.

Alexandra Daddario Gives A Brave And Stirring Performance In “Lost Girls & Love Hotels” 

Watching a character make poor choices can be a trying experience, depending on the genre at hand. Seeing this in a comedy? Potentially hilarious. Observing similar acts in a drama? Quite possibly heartbreaking. The new drama Lost Girls & Love Hotels comes very close to going too far over the edge, but a tremendous central turn from Alexandra Daddario saves the day. Without her, it would have been a bleak and unduly trying experience. With her, it becomes a tough but compelling bit of cinema. By no means is it an easy one to watch, but armed with Daddario’s performance, there’s enough here to make it worthy of a slight recommendation.

The film is a personality research, mixing some thriller parts into its drama. Margaret (Daddario) has discovered herself in Japan, dwelling a duel life. By day, she’s an English instructor at a flight attendant academy, instructing a bunch of Japanese ladies the job. By evening, she explores the neon puzzle that’s Tokyo, typically winding up in a bar or a love lodge, that are significantly designed for hooking up. Margaret clearly has no route in life, nearly winding up within the nation by chance, however she floats about her days as if making an attempt to overlook one thing. More often than not, she and fellow ex-pat Ines (Carice van Houten) simply get drunk in a Japanese dive bar, resulting in Margaret then choosing up a random man for a love lodge encounter. That begins to alter when she crosses paths with Kazu (Takehiro Hira). Initially a suave but mysterious man, she shortly learns that he’s truly a dashing yakuza, although she falls in love with him in brief order, regardless. As she balances her onerous recollections with the potential hopefulness of a relationship, a portrait of this younger lady begins to emerge. William Olsson directs a screenplay by Catherine Hanrahan (who additionally wrote the e book), with music by Ola Fløttum, in addition to cinematography from Kenji Katori. Supporting gamers embrace Kate Easton, Elisabeth Larena, Andrew Rothney, Mariko Tsutsui, and extra. 

Alexandra Daddario is the reason why this film works. She gives an emotionally naked performance, on top of the brave physical state of her character. It’s downright stirring to watch her try and overcome her poor choices, even if it largely seems to be halfhearted or in vain. Daddario has piercing eyes, so watching this hard to read character have such expressive ones makes for an interesting experience. You can’t get a read on her, but you desperately want to. She pulls this off with ease, even though it clearly had to be a tough shoot. Takehiro Hira is solid as well, but this 100% Daddario’s show, from start to finish.

Lost Girls & Love Hotels wallows in Margaret’s misery a bit too much, but Daddario is such a compelling actress, you’re willing to forgive director William Olsson and writer Catherine Hanrahan somewhat for the repetition. Now, the film is still too long, with iffy pacing that makes it seem even longer, but Hanrahan and Olsson are certainly committed to their premise. Luckily, with Daddario all in as well, they’re just able to pull it off.

Tomorrow, fans of Alexandra Daddario can see her best performance to date when Lost Girls & Love Hotels opens up. Daddario is undoubtedly terrific here, so anyone who’s been following her work should be excited by this challenging turn. At the same time, go in with eyes wide open, knowing it’s tough subject matter and the movie doesn’t hold back from being fairly bleak.