TRealizing age-old expectations of how a fairy tale is supposed to unfold and quickly shaking them up is by no means as fresh as some filmmakers often like to think, upending clichés with a tired wink and a smile sufficient. But Netflix's Damsel, itself vaguely similar to Hulu's 2022 offering Princessdoes not need our astonishment at his wheel reinvention to pass the bar and is far too lively to get bogged down excessively in the self-satisfaction of such an enterprise.
There are, in fact, very few surprises here – perhaps Fast the depths, pushed by a familiar current. of revenge. For Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown, Netflix's leading lady), her journey begins in a different kind of conflict. His family, led by his father (Ray Winstone) and stepmother (Angela Bassett), is in trouble, as are his people, who need a miracle to save them. It magically arrives in the form of an offer of marriage, a handsome prince from a distant kingdom (Nick Robinson) wants to make her his wife, ruled by a strong-willed queen (Robin Wright). But her happy ending is actually an unhappy beginning, with the marriage part of an ancient ritual that sees her thrown into a cave, sacrificed to a dragon. Romance turns to horror as Elodie must get to safety.
It's a teenage riff on a classic left-for-dead revenge tale, and in a subgenre that's been done to exhaustion, watching a young woman endure that same physically exhausting hero status transition to death. The action seems at least superficially fresher (compared to another thriller about the bride who discovers that marriage is a sacrifice, it's far more effective than 2019's Ready or Not, a film far too pleased with itself to worrying about whether we are also entertained).
In the hands of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, a Spanish genre director who has been absent from Hollywood for quite some time (the reaction to his 2011 Clive Owen horror film Intruders was bad enough to keep him away), Damsel is an exciting low-level adventure. pleasures as we watch Elodie discover the importance of her own ingenuity and independence in the face of the love of a prince. It's a slightly feminist version with the queen also ruling the kingdom, Elodie's stepmother taking control of the family, and even a dragoness ruling the cave. This allows three older actresses to take up time and space in a film of this scale, giving us an effectively icy but underused Wright (who needs fiercer lines) and some wonderfully sinister voice work from the nominee at the Oscars. Shohreh Aghdashloo. Like many child actors, Brown can be a little too emphatic in her speech and emotional reactions, something that almost worked in the Enola Holmes films, but something that can sometimes seem a little too self-aware -same and artificial, the kind of impressive precocity in young years but less so with age. A film like Damsel doesn't exactly demand a strong or concrete performance, but it's only when the role relies on her to move from words to action that she comes into her own.
Although some of the larger landscapes may seem a bit AI-enhanced, Damsel avoids many, if not all, of the visual cues that can remind us that we're watching a movie. Netflix a mockbuster rather than a true blockbuster. The world is immersive if a little undeveloped, the dragon moves with more flair and ease than the CG monsters in these films often do and although the humidity of the cave setting can become a little monotonous, with some of the story beats towards the end, it's thankfully well lit.
If Damsel doesn't exactly rewrite the history book, it makes for a competent reworking, a gripping revenge saga that provides a thin but encouraging message to its younger female audience and a balm for older viewers who grew up being spoon-fed. the same old genre clichés. This time there is salt to accompany that sugar.