Damsel is the latest fantasy film to be framed and sold as a deliberate subversion of typical fantasy tropes. While the traditional “prince saves the damsel in distress” fairy tale narrative hasn’t been common in fantasy for at least two decades at this point, the concept is so pervasive in popular culture that flipping it on its head has become just as, if not more, pervasive.
This most recent flipping aims to differentiate itself from other modern fantasy by combining the fairy tale approach with a darker Game of Thrones style tone. While the narrative is fairly simplistic, it still tackles very heavy material and does not shy away from the brutality and darkness of it all. And with the aid of a great lead in Millie Bobby Brown, it mostly succeeds.
Damsel Plot
Our story centers on Elodie, played by Millie Bobby Brown, a young girl doing her best to help her family get by in a small village when her father, played by Ray Winstone, arranges for her to be married to the prince of the nearby kingdom of Aurea. While this seems like a dream come true at first glance, things quickly take a turn for the worse when Elodie is thrown into a mysterious cave as part of a generations-long ritual sacrifice.
Now, armed with only her wits and a constrictive wedding dress, Elodie must not only confront the natural dangers and twisting paths of the caves; but also the dangerous fire-breathing dragon that lives within them and is determined to kill her to complete the sacrifice. With any luck, Elodie could escape the cave, discover the truth, and end this madness once and for all…… but only if she survives.
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Damsel Critique
The biggest issue with Damsel is tis pacing. It takes well over half an hour to get to the major hook they’ve sold the movie on and most of the time before that feels like overly padded set dressing. The world of Damsel, for as beautifully shot as it is, is too generic of a fantasy setting to be engaging in its own right while also being too fleshed out to work as a more abstract piece a la The Green Knight.
As a result, the world building and character moments, with the exception of the sisterly bonding between Elodie and Brooke Carter’s Flora which are genuinely sweet, feel less like an immersive experience and more like the wait in line for the rollercoaster. But once said rollercoaster gets going, Damsel works incredibly well.
The use of lighting and isolation to convey tension, the dramatic, action-packed confrontations between Elodie and the dragon, the way Elodie’s wedding dress gets more and more of its elaborate accoutrements torn away as she becomes more independent, it’s genuinely great stuff. Costume designer Amanda Monk deserves special credit for making all the different phases of the dress communicate drastically different character ideas while still all feeling like part of the same base garment.
The supporting cast all perform rather admirably and it’s obviously fun to see Princess Buttercup herself, Robin Wright, play against type as the Evil Queen, but they don’t get much in the way of major character or action beats aside from Shohren Agdashloo as the Dragon. Because, yes, the Dragon does talk in this and she gets a genuinely compelling arc of her own that I obviously won’t spoil here.
But the true star is of course Millie Bobby Brown as Elodie. Despite being one of the biggest stars of the moment, she has yet to really get to cut her teeth in a more serious lead performance; being just one part of a large ensemble in Stranger Things and the MonsterVerse films. And her one other major lead performance as the title character of the Enola Holmes franchise is more of a tongue-in-cheek fun adventure than it is a serious dramatic role.
Here, she needs to carry most of the movie by herself and she is more than up to the challenge. The pain and anguish Elodie feels while lost in the cave and the grit and determination of facing down the dragon are handled with the same level of gusto, grace, and tact as the smaller moments between Elodie and her family or her would-be husband. She feels like a surprisingly fleshed out character in a less than fleshed-out world and much of that comes down to just how good Millie Bobby Brown is in the role.
In Conclusion
Damsel is by no means a perfect movie. It takes too long to get to the meat of the story, the surrounding world doesn’t feel as engaging as it should be, and the admittedly cathartic ending feels disappointingly conventional for a movie that is otherwise so subversive. But the good vastly outweighs the bad here.
The costume design, lighting, and cinematography are immaculate, the action scenes are consistently gripping, and Millie Bobby Brown gives a powerhouse lead performance that deserves more credit than it will probably get. While it may not be especially groundbreaking, it’s still one of the most entertaining fantasy films of the past few years and well worth checking out.
9/10
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