TL;DR – While a bit messy in places, strong casting and a solid central premise combine to make a fascinating film at times.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Damsel Review –

I have always loved a good schlocky fantasy film. One that knows its premise and its voice and excels from there. It is in this space that we get gems like The Mummy and Dungeons and Dragons. Today, we are looking at a film that is trying to capture that kind of energy and see if they can pull it off.   

So to set the scene, we open in as a platoon of knights crawl into a dragon’s (Shohreh Aghdashloo) lair, hoping to slay the beast before ending in a conflagration of flames. Centuries later, in a faraway land on the verge of ruin lives Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown), a princess. It is at this dark moment when an envoy from the Kingdom of Aurea arrives looking for Elodie’s hand in marriage for their prince. This marriage would give Elodie’s kingdom enough resources to make it to the thaw. As the family arrives at Aurea, its wealth greets them, and also a sense that not everything is as it seems, for the mountains behind the kingdom cast long shadows.

To say that this film is a slow burn is putting it mildly. From the opening beats of the film, you know precisely where Elodie will end up, but they draw it out, like watching a storm on the horizon, crashing and booming but approaching with a snail’s pace. Usually, this kind of dithering can be frustrating, but it works here. Part of that is because I liked the shift of Lady Bayford (Angela Bassett), the stepmother being the one to work out something is rotten in the state of Denmark instead of being the one that sells her out. The other part is that Millie Bobby Brown is perfectly cast for this role, which makes it work because you feel she actually cares.

When it comes to the effects, we get a bit of a mixed bag at times, ranging from the fantastic to the undercooked. Generally speaking, a lot of the effects in this film look really good away in the wide but lose a lot of their impact close up, where they clearly didn’t have the time or budget to make a lot of them really pop. The one major exception to this is the Dragon’s fire that exists at the meeting point of magma, a lava lamp, and a bonfire. It has a stickiness that you would expect from, say, napalm or Greek fire. It works so much better than a lot of the more flamethrower dragon fires that we often see.  

Much of the film, from the moment of defenestration, is about Elodie running from the Dragon. At the same time, she makes increasingly more elaborate MacGyver contraptions with all the elaborate wedding gowns she was turfed into the hole with. It’s kind of a blast because, even if it is a bit silly, Millie Bobby Brown brings the commitment you need. Also, suppose you are going to have a dragon in the background constantly stalking its prey and well casting Shohreh Aghdashloo as the Dragon is your first and best choice. In that case, it is such good casting that while you don’t want Elodie to die, but you are also not against the Dragon winning.     

In the end, do we recommend Damsel? Well, some parts are a bit hit-and-miss. It does not quite have a handle on the themes it is exploring, and I am not sure the impact is there. However, we get a compelling narrative with great casting, and it is nice to watch the Portuguese countryside for a solid 100 minutes. If you liked Damsel, we would recommend to you The Princess.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Damsel
Directed by – Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Written by – Dan Mazeau
Music by – David Fleming
Cinematography by – Larry Fong
Edited by – John Gilbert
Production/Distribution Companies – RK Films & Netflix
Starring – Millie Bobby Brown, Ray Winstone, Angela Bassett, Brooke Carter, Nick Robinson, Robin Wright & Shohreh Aghdashloo with Milo Twomey, Nicole Joseph, Patrice Naiambana, Ulli Ackermann, Mens-Sana Tamakloe, Ezra Faroque, Khan, Tasha Lim, Brogan McFarlane, Sonya Nisa, Esther Odumade, Margarita Ren, Eloise Shephard Taylor, Szofia Sallai & Matt Slack
Rating – Australia: M