Millie Bobby Brown isn't in need of a Prince Charming in Netflix's new movie Damsel, an entertaining fantasy adventure that offers a twist on traditional medieval tales.
The story follows Elodie, a young woman who agrees to marry a handsome prince from the faraway kingdom of Aurea in order to save her people from starvation.
When she arrives to meet her betrothed alongside her father (Ray Winstone), stepmother (Angela Bassett) and sister (Brooke Carter), the striking contrast between the snow-capped mountains of her family home and the grand, green landscape of this foreign country is evident. Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) is charming enough, and soon Elodie comes to terms with her situation despite the cold emanating from the Queen of Aurea (Robin Wright).
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This is far from a romantic fairytale, however — forced to pay an ancient debt to a powerful dragon, Aurea's royal family has been offering young women as sacrifices for generations. Elodie is the next in line.
This subversion of the usual knight-saves-princess narrative is long overdue, even if Damsel doesn't manage to avoid all the clichés.
There is no classic romance, nor a handsome man to the rescue – good! – but we do have a two-dimensional villainous queen, a misunderstood dragon with a tragic past and an eco-fable background message.
The backbone of the story feels like lazily-written padding and deep down we wish it was more inspired by The Descent and less like a chapter from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Still, the movie manages to soar above it most of the time.
Even the cheap-looking CGI landscapes of this medieval kingdom could be interpreted as a metaphor: the dreamy wedding proposal is as fake as those mountains and fields.
The strength of the movie relies on the leading heroine, however, and the Stranger Things star is steadily compiling a back catalogue of interestingly varied characters on Netflix.
Where Eleven is a fascinating blend of raw power and innocent vulnerability, and the young detective Enola Holmes is all charisma and cheerful inventiveness, Brown's performance as Elodie seems to be coming from a place of pride, dignity and strength.
The actress is clearly in tune with this character, who evolves from a blushing bride to an action heroine with incredible resourcefulness in the span of 100 minutes.
Elodie also strikes a fair balance: a normal girl with solid survival skills rather than an absurdly seasoned warrior, making for a more satisfying watch.
Unfortunately, the fabulous Angela Bassett and Robin Wright have little to do with their motherly roles. Same goes for Nick Robinson (Love, Simon), whose character is straight-up non-existent, a role absent of personality despite the internal conflict he shyly offers by the end.
This is a one-woman show for Millie Bobby Brown after all, with the only notable exception being the extraordinarily creepy voice acting work from Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse).
The Iranian-American actress excels at infusing the dragon's voice with a cocktail of danger, ire and grief. However, the fact that she is not even given a name shows how little the movie cares about its most glorious character beyond its Godzilla-like power-up body lights and lava-based fire.
Another aspect worth highlighting in Damsel is the remarkable costume design, particularly regarding Elodie's wedding dress — an intricate creation of corsets, layers and puffed sleeves, it feels like a prison of its own.
When the character is thrown into the dragon's cave, the pieces that form the dress start to fall apart, liberating Elodie from the heavy burden of an arranged marriage and the social expectations of women. The parallels between her survival journey, damaged clothes and improvised haircut are fantastic.
At its core, the movie is gunning for a sort of consumable female empowerment, not only through Elodie's adventure but also by shining a light on the young women who were sacrificed before her. The critical help she inherits from them is translated into a collective victory for all.
A broad-brush approach, yes, but there's nothing wrong with some basic feminism on your fun weekend watch.
Damsel is available to watch on Netflix now.
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Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
