With “The Eternal Daughter,” the new film from director Joanna Hogg, Tilda Swinton joins Hayley Mills, Jeremy Irons, and, yes, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as actors who have played more than one member of a family in a movie. You may recall that “Brats” (1930) had Stan and Ollie starring as their respective sons, a bit of casting that was both a no-brainer and genuinely inspired.“The Eternal Daughter” is not as lighthearted or fractious as “Brats,” but it does alight upon a similar dynamic: the complications that can accrue between parent and child. Ms. Swinton plays Julie Hart, a middle-aged filmmaker who has a lot on her plate, career-wise and personally. She’s taken her mother Rosalind, also played by Ms. Swinton, on a holiday to celebrate the latter’s birthday. Given Julie’s general level of anxiety, happy tidings on this occasion are so much wishful thinking. How old is Rosalind? Old enough to remember the Blitz. Moel Famau, an expansive hotel that was once a country manor, isn’t unknown to Rosalind: As the Germans were bombing Britain, the Hart family sent their children to the relative safety of this isolated house in the countryside. Julia, eager to please her mother, imagines that revisiting the estate will provide Rosalind with some measure of solace and an opportunity to reconnect with days long gone.Of course, some days are better left forgotten. Julia’s plans run afoul not only of Rosalind’s memories but of an ulterior motive: to surreptitiously record her mother in conversation as source material for a new movie. Julia can’t quite pull it off, confessing to an irksome feeling that she’s exploiting Rosalind. As a result, she has trouble sleeping, having hit a wall creatively. Not even Bill (Joseph Mydell), a kindly groundskeeper with an infinite capacity for understanding, can quell Julia’s doubts.Why aren’t there any other guests at Moel Famau? The receptionist (a hilariously belligerent Carly-Sophia Davies) implies that the hotel is booked even as the key rack behind the front desk suggests otherwise. Julia and Rosalind have the run of the place — the luxe restaurant, the manicured grounds, and a vertiginous stairway that doesn’t bode well. The hallways are kaleidoscopic, the rooms claustrophobic. Doors open and close by themselves. And, oh, the sounds: creaking, clunking, galumphing, and bumping. The sound editor, Jovan Ajder, knows his way around a haunted house.Notwithstanding the evident attention Ms. Swinton has put into her roles, the real star of “The Eternal Daughter” is Moel Farnau, or, rather, Soughton Hall, a Georgian country house in the north-east of Wales that serves as a boutique hotel and event locale. Just how long it will continue to do so is a good question: Anyone who gets a gander at what Ms. Hogg, along with production designer Stéphane Collonge and cinematographer Ed Rutherford, have done to the place will think twice about renting it for a wedding. Hill House is, in comparison, a veritable Zen retreat; the Overlook Hotel, a Motel 6. Ghost story enthusiasts of a certain type — those who relish the genteel sense of dread generated by writers like Henry James, M.R. James, and E.F. Benson — will love Moel Farnau.Will they love “The Eternal Daughter”? It depends on whether they’re moviegoers who enjoy the ride more than the destination. Truth be told, the denouement of the picture is fairly obvious right out of the gate — so much so, that you have to wonder if Ms. Hogg, who also wrote the script, intended for its disclosures to deflate quite as quickly as they do. Still and all, her picture is gorgeous to look at, and moves with a beautiful sense of measure, having been crafted with prudence and care. Not every ghost picture can be as resonant as “The Uninvited,” “The Haunting,” or, I insist, “The Legend of Hell House,” but I suspect “The Eternal Daughter” will gain in density and stature upon retrospect. A movie that sticks in the memory is a rare thing, and that may well be what Ms. Hogg has given us here.
