Parents' Guide to His Three Daughters

This character study of three alienated sisters waiting for their ailing father to pass away is an ambitious concept upheld by admirable acting. With limited settings, a dialogue-heavy, action-sparse script, ambient noise, and many moments of quiet reflection, His Three Daughters could easily be staged for theater. You can trace its New York-centric heritage from Cassavetes and Allen to Baumbach and more. Although the daughters are the focus, their connection revolves around their father, as the title alludes. Yet the director astutely keeps Dad absent for most of the film, a subject hidden from view, with only the sounds of his heart monitor haunting the apartment, the gloomy updates of his hospice caregivers, and the memories of those closest to him as guides.

Maybe that's why the father's late-film appearance comes across as a bit too engineered after more than an hour setting up his absence and the sisters' seemingly irreconcilable differences. In this and other ways, the characters and some of their dialogues feel overly scripted, based around archetypal figures whose lives are defined by their relationships with others. What brings these women to fuller life is the actors embodying them, especially Lyonne. The sisters' fear at the pending prospect of losing their father, and potentially their connections to each other and the home they once shared, are palpable and realistic. By the end, you believe in their characters and where the story might go next.