'Damsel' review: Scattershot film has spectacular visuals but dull writing
Millie Bobby Brown's Damsel, fittingly released on International Women's Day on Friday on Netflix, is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. The fantasy thriller tries to turn the fairy tale trope on its head through its lead who fights a dragon for women's emancipation, but it struggles to go beyond its obvious feminist themes. Scattershot and hackneyed, its predictable storyline is a conspicuous slippery slope.
Story of a young, valiant princess, Elodie
The titular Damsel is Elodie, Bobby Brown, a young princess who belongs to a poor and "barren" kingdom reeling under the onslaught of extreme climate. Her father trades her in marriage for "more gold than [he] could ever imagine." The bargain doesn't bode well, however, and Elodie's in-laws throw her in a dragon's lair as part of a deadly ceremonial sacrifice. Will she live?
Juvenile writing harms the movie
With the first few sequences being an exception, Damsel has little going for it. Its writing has unfillable holes that can't be filled either by the ensemble cast's acting prowess or by its breathtaking, spectacular cinematography and visuals. Despite being under two hours long, it's an insipid, dreary, and sometimes even frustrating drag, because you already know what's about to transpire well in advance.
We never feel the thrill and excitement
You would think that a girl being thrown at a dragon would mean that the stakes are incredibly high. They are, but only momentarily; overall, Damsel struggles to keep its plot tightly reined in since it doesn't have solid ground to stand on or enough meat to bite into. It neither engages you nor keeps you hooked. What a disservice to the thriller genre.
Makes done-to-death narrative choices
Films that feel the need to voice every single thing out simply self-sabotage because they don't trust their audience enough to notice what's happening onscreen. Damsel is guilty of this too. It keeps "telling" us things instead of just showing them as they are and after the first half an hour or so, I was already out because of how run-of-the-mill everything is.
Rushes into everything; no time for character development
Damsel knows it has enchanting visuals, so it structures itself in a way that it receives the maximum spotlight. This means a massacre of the film's character development; we don't spend enough time with Elodie, her parents, her husband Henry, or her mother-in-law Isabelle for us to be invested in their story. We are strangers to them, and they are to us.
No time to engage with the lead, either
While Damsel's intent to impart a lesson in female strength, valiance, and intelligence is noteworthy, it also feels too eager to demonstrate how Elodie is perfection personified. So when she is captured in the dragon's lair, you know well enough that she'll be out within hours, the dangers of the cave notwithstanding. If the movie can't interest you in the protagonist, what's the point?
Only the visuals and Bobby Brown are its strengths
Coming to what works in this wayward film, its visuals are heavily redolent of Once Upon a Time and even Game of Thrones. Bobby Brown is having a dream run with solid projects like Stranger Things and Enola Holmes already in her repertoire, and Damsel is another testament to her acting abilities across genres. Without her, Damsel would have fallen apart even sooner.
Watch only for Bobby Brown, else skip; 2/5 stars
The kind of movie that aspires to pull the rug from under your feet but ends up tumbling on it, Damsel is an attempt gone wrong due to its clueless writing, surprising narrative choices, and barely-developed characters. Not boring but predictable, it hopes that Bobby Brown and the optics will sail everything, but putting all eggs in one basket is never a good idea.
