Millie Bobby Brown in Lady.
Photo: John Wilson/Netflix/Everett Collection
Somewhere inside Lady, Netflix's new medieval fantasy tale starring Millie Bobby Brown, is a performance of such contempt, fragility, and rage that it briefly threatens to upend the entire film. That this comes from the great Iranian-American actress Shohreh Aghdashloo should surprise no one. What might, however, is that she voices a fire-breathing dragon, the monster our heroine is supposed to fight.
Our heroine, in this case, is Elodie (Brown), a headstrong young noblewoman from a starving and poor country who has been betrothed to the handsome Prince Henry (Nick Robinson), heir to the throne of Aurea, a wealthy kingdom across the world. Wed. Reluctant to marry but willing to do so to please her abandoned father (Ray Winstone) and save her people, Elodie slowly accepts her fate, and Brown portrays the girl's growing complacency with a mixture of faith and apprehension. We sense she's determined to make the best of her unfortunate situation, even though we can tell this whole marriage thing isn't going to end well – especially after witnessing the dismissive treatment her mother-in-law receives. Elodie (Angela Bassett!) receives from the haughty Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright!). Sure enough, on the wedding day, Elodie is thrown into a seemingly bottomless pit by her new husband, after which we learn that the kingdom of Aurea survives by sacrificing its princesses to a hungry dragon. The sweet and kind Elodie is only the latest in a long line of young dupes to marry.
Produced by Netflix, Lady is presented as a bold new take on the typical (and presumably patriarchal) fantasy narrative. “It’s not a fairy tale,” warns one of the film’s taglines. There is also a novel, billed as “an epic twist on classic fantasy”, written by Evelyn Skye and based on the screenplay by Dan Mazeau, which came out last year, around the time the film was released. scheduled for 2023. (The date was moved due to WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes.) Bravery credits for such girl power revisionism probably expired some time ago — it's been more than a decade since Frozen came out, and even Walt Disney himself gently mocked the phrase “love conquers all” 65 years ago – but it's still the thought that counts.
What makes Lady What is interesting is not the story itself but the tone with which it is told. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 weeks later), who made his name as a horror filmmaker (and who, somewhat shockingly, hasn't had a feature film credit since 2011 Intruders), is an effective visual storyteller who knows how to convey key information through images and performances. And once Elodie falls into that hole, Fresnadillo fully embraces her gender instincts. The most suspenseful parts of Lady involve this girl desperately (and silently) scrambling and hiding inside the dark cave system she landed in, cutting and burning herself and trying to piece together what happened to all the other girls thrown into this abyss . It's like The princess to marry meets The black phone.
And then there's that dragon, which adds layers of suspense and feeling to the story. At first, she slips and spits with sadistic bile, mocking and playing with Elodie. Aided by some impressive VFX work, Fresnadillo heightens the menace by ensuring that we never really see the creature in its entirety, at least not at first. (The dragon is like the shark in Jawsbut with more attitude.) Although she doesn't have much dialogue, Aghdashloo does wonders with her voice: We hear the sadness in her fury, a hint of resignation that makes us (and Elodie) curious to know what the story of this beast is. could be.
Sometimes I remembered Benedict Cumberbatch's enchanting vocal performance as Smaug in the film second to that of Peter Jackson Hobbit movies (which, not coincidentally, was the only film in this trilogy that wasn't a complete waste of time). The actor's rich baritone brought welcome shade to a true villain; Aghdashloo takes a standard monster and gives him such depth that we can feel our allegiances shift based solely on the timbre of his voice. It's all part of the design: there's more to this dragon than meets the eye, and what makes the back half of the film entertaining is precisely the uncertainty caused by the changing loyalty of the audience.
As for Brown, always talented, we sometimes wish she had brought a little of her playful side. Enola Holmes character to Elodie, whose breathless sincerity can sometimes seem indifferent. But this is a new, large-scale challenge for the actress, and above all she delivers a game, a physical performance. More than a fantastic adventure, Lady is a macabre and sometimes even touching story about endurance and survival. It's sweaty and really fun.