Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Millie Bobby Brown, Netflix’s Damsel has the meat and fire of a fantastic action adventure, but it feels somewhat incomplete by the end. It’s an intriguing mix between The Princess Bride and Snow White and the Huntsman, finding itself in the middle where a woman’s freedom fully prevails gorgeously. We spend the majority of the time watching Brown’s Elodie try to free herself from a ruthless dragon (voiced by the indomitable Shohreh Aghdashloo), yet none of it ultimately evokes anything emotional until the very last second.
And by the time we get to the end, the emotions are so heightened, so evocatively rewarding that it’s a shame the film concludes without the essence of much vulnerability. Make no mistake, it’s still a relatively enjoyable time, especially for younger girls who’d like to see themselves in the role of a badass heroine, but perhaps more narrative arcs later on could make it feel more nuanced and accomplished.
In frequent cases with movies like this, we’d argue that a film could benefit from more romance, but that’s not the setup here, and it isn’t necessary either. Netflix’s Damsel instead assembles a compelling story about mothers and daughters and the lengths women are willing to go to to protect their legacy. So often, it’s men who push and deal with the implications of wanting an heir, but here, we have a different version of that desire. We have a stepmother who’s willing to go far and wide to save her daughters and a dragon who’d stop at nothing to avenge her murdered daughters.
Both Aghdashloo’s voice work and Angela Bassett’s gripping performances ground the film’s theme to an emotionally vulnerable place that tugs and pulls hard, which is ultimately why it’s so easy to want more of them. Perhaps, even an interaction between the two with Elodie’s return back home would’ve done the trick. There’s plenty of juice here to organically tell stories through a woman’s perspective in a male-dominated hierarchy, and the film indeed does so for a bit, but you have to question how much of it loses itself a bit through repetitive action sequences.
I didn’t walk into Netflix’s Damsel expecting the next best thing in a high-octane film, but I was hopeful for more emotions. Further, it’s how much of the leg work relies on Brown’s performance, which isn’t something a film should do. She is the rightful lead, but we could’ve used far more of the other characters to give us a bit more to hold on.
The film has a good chunk going for it, with the performances at the top of the list. It also features a riveting original score from David Fleming, gorgeous costumes, believable special effects, and an intricate set design that’s hard to look away from. It’s a film we’d like to see more from, and should that be the case at any point, then it could lead to a riveting basis for women. The message is clear as day, and the execution works—it merely lacks some of the emotional beats to fully stick the landing and become memorable.
Netflix’s Damsel airs on March 8.
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