Damsel
March 6th, 2024
MOVIE: DAMSEL
STARRING: MILLIE BOBBY BROWN, RAY WINSTONE, ANGELA BASSETT, NICK ROBINSON, ROBIN WRIGHT, SHOHREH AGHDASHLOO
DIRECTED BY: JUAN CARLOS FRESNADILLO
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 3 STARS (Out of 4)
The fantasy genre hasn’t been around much these days. When we get something that has those elements it feels like a B12 shot of cinema. Damsel, the newest vehicle for Millie Bobby Brown, is not just a cool subversion of a story about a princess in need of saving from a dragon, but a welcomed twist on all fairy tales. It becomes about two halves. The part where the princess is betrothed to a prince and the other part where she must be saved. Only this Damsel does it all by herself. With MBB showing off her action-hero skills, along with a kick-ass dragon, and a battle of wits, I found Damsel to be an awesome reminder of why good fantasy can be a blast of fire.
First, there is a brief intro about a king and his men dying by the fiery breath of a dragon. Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown) is the eldest daughter of Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone), along with her stepmother Lady Bayford (Angela Bassett), and younger sister Floria (Brooke Carter). Their land is in dark times, where crops are dying, the people are starving, and something needs to happen to save their mythical place. Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright) offers an olive branch of wealth, but it comes with the hopes of her son Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) taking Elodie’s hand in marriage. The two hit it off. There is love in the air but that evaporates fast when Elodie is tossed into a pit for sacrifice to a massive fire-breathing dragon (voiced by the legendary Shohreh Aghdashloo).
The initial romance between the prince and his potential queen is sweet but Damsel turns on once we enter the dragon’s lair. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and writer Dan Mazeau do an excellent job of setting the stage, where our hero must survive a dark place she does not know and also survive battling the winged beast. Although some of the sets look like too much CGI, it’s the resilience of our hero that rubs off, along with a cat…er dragon, and mouse game that becomes increasingly challenging in every corner of the cave.
Narratively and visually, Damsel is similar to the segments of The Hobbit where Bilbo goes into a game of wits with Smaug. On top of the fact that Aghdashloo’s silky smooth voice was made to be projected from the tooth-gnashing mouth of a dragon, it grows into a tale of one person, one creature, forced into scenarios they both didn’t sign up for. Elodie is a medieval MacGyver, using her dress as tourniquets for burn wounds, while unafraid to stand up and fight the beast. If the first half is Ever After then the second half is pure Die Hard. It also does the Die Hard stuff in an unforced, organic way, instead of attempting to be a message about what girls can do.
Damsel is a perfect mixture of childlike fantasy and heroic action. It’s also another impressive performance from Millie Bobby Brown, proving she’s moving far beyond her Stranger Things side. Yes, it may be too similar to what Joey King does in The Princess (a movie I need to revisit), plus it is another Netflix movie that would work better on a big screen, but I still ate it up. It reminded me of how cool a dragon movie can be. Similar to DragonHeart, Reign of Fire, or Willow. I’m a sucker for that stuff. This Damsel doesn’t need saving. She can do it all herself.
DAMSEL IS PLAYING ON NETFLIX FRIDAY MARCH 8TH, 2024.
3 STARS
Written by: Leo Brady
leo@amovieguy.com
