'Damsel' Review: 127 Hours With Dungeons and Dragons
Throughout Damsel, as Millie Bobby Brown’s resilient character Elodie is fighting for her freaking life against a petty fire-breathing dragon in a deep cave, I kept thinking of that song “Cinderella” by Play (or Cheetah Girls, depending on your preference). The one with the catchy chorus that goes:
I don't wanna be like Cinderella
Sitting in a dark, cold, dusty cellar
Waiting for somebody
To come and set me free
I don't wanna be like Snow White waiting
For a handsome prince to come and save me
On a horse of white
Unless we're riding side by side
Don't wanna depend on no one else
I'd rather rescue myself
Yeah, this movie is the cinematic personification of that song.
PG13: Sequences of strong creature violence, action, and bloody images.
Runtime: 1 Hr and 48 Minutes
Production Companies: Roth/Kirschenbaum Films
Distributor: Netflix
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Writer: Dan Mazeau
Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Ray Winstone, Nick Robinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Angela Bassett, Robin Wright
Release Date: March 8, 2024
Exclusively on Netflix
With her family's kingdom in financial ruin, Princess Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown) agrees to her father's (Ray Winstone) and stepmother's (Angela Bassett) request for her to marry a handsome prince, Henry (Nick Robinson), in a far-off kingdom. Stepmother Lady Bayford gets bad vibes from Henry's wicked mother, Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright), and suspects something is afoot. Regardless, Elodie weds Henry, but hours after their ceremony, she learns that the kingdom has a weird tradition where they sacrifice all the first royal daughters to a murderous fire-breathing dragon (Shohreh Aghdashloo). Henry yeets her off a cliff and into the dragon's pit. Now, Elodie must use her survival instincts to make her way to freedom without being roasted like a rotisserie by the dragon.
Damsel's tagline proudly declares, “This Is Not a Fairytale,” echoing the spirit of post-feminist ‘90s and early ‘00s fantasy flicks. It follows in the footsteps of movies like Ever After, Ella Enchanted, and even Princess Bride (hence the casting of Robin Wright) in its aim to subvert fantasy stereotypes. This film would've comfortably fit into that era with its bright, colorful art direction and Amanda Monk's (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) eye-popping medieval wardrobe. However, the raw savagery under its dungeon-crawler procedure makes Damsel stand out.
With its cold open, involving the dragon torching some knights, director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo puffs out his chest, flaunting the PG-13 rating. Fresnadillo's direction hits all the right marks of an effective survival flick, explicitly emphasizing all the squeamish injuries Elodie endures, heightening the immersion in her journey and adding a refreshing edge worthy of its rating, bearing the same nightmare fuel as a classic Indiana Jones flick. The movie never shies from its body-horror aspect, as all the burns and painful gashes Elodie gets are brutally detailed and supplemented with practical, realistic makeup. That dragon she faces makes Smaug look like a chump because she's a terrifying beast who uses each feature of her body as an individual weapon while talking smack to her victims. Man, Shohreh Aghdashloo's booming and intimidating line deliveries as the dragon prompts heavy chills. Granted, character-wise, she's a petty dragon, for she holds a grudge for a century and is too stubborn to listen to reason, but she is frightening nonetheless.
Since childhood, Millie Bobby Brown has been screaming on the platform that made her name. She can sell a compelling depiction of pain through grunts and screams, confidently carrying the film. She's acting her butt off, facing this CG dragon and dealing with it as if it's her only shot to graduate out of that N-shaped threshold and onto other things. Elodie, Enola Holmes, and Eleven (Jesus, why so many E-named characters?) are all examples of her talent, and there's no reason for her not to be hitting the big screens like her Stranger Things costars are doing.
It takes a lot of very convoluted and sometimes unnecessarily pointless setups for Damsel to get started. Initially, the story teases Nick Robinson's Henry as a more significant role outside of being his mother's pawn. They ultimately do nothing with him. Once Elodie makes her way through the cave and learns about her Link to Her Past (hehe) via names on the wall, the contextualization between the kingdom and the dragon's centuries-spanning debt is pathetic. It tries to have the viewer empathize with the dragon because she was done dirty, but her actions, coupled with the centuries she's been roasting girlies, negate any empathy you'd have towards her.
Part of what makes a fun survival thriller is its “make it up as you go” adventure structure, but the movie spells it out for Elodie at a certain point. Despite several fantastic, thrilling set pieces – resulting in the first time I've witnessed a gamer's speedrun serving as a plot point – the literal writing on the wall does a disservice to her independent strength, something the story proudly emphasizes.
As far as a Netflix blockbuster movie goes, it's very Netflix-ey in terms of effects and quality. The CG VFX works on the cave's backgrounds, and the dragon is impressive whenever the shot composition is under any distant shots. Whenever those closeups surface, the janky rendering is on full display, as you can see where the searing ends and the blue screen begins. If you watch at home and are used to the same Netflix blockbuster look that all their movies bear, this won’t be a problem. But my ass was at the Paris Theater at the world premiere. I couldn't help but think of how sometimes it doesn't look wholly rendered with its $60-70 million price tag.
Carried by a badass Millie Bobby Brown and intense, fiery direction with a ‘90s-styled "screw them kids" soul, Damsel is a solid and surprisingly gnarly fantasy thriller that stands as a solid Netflix feature film.
Rating: 3/5 | 67%
