Damsel Movie Review: Damsel begins with a proclamation – we may have heard various stories about damsels in distress being rescued by Princes Charming, but this is not that story. Yes, there is a ‘damsel’, and yes, she is in distress, but it is the damsel who needs to save herself, as she is in ‘distress’ thanks to her Prince Charming. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s film, with Stranger Things‘ Millie Bobby Brown in the lead, can be seen as a revisionist take on Disney fairy tales while also functioning as a survival thriller pitting Woman vs Beast. Damsel OTT Streaming Date and Time: Here’s How To Watch Millie Bobby Brown’s Fantasy Action Film Online!

In some unspecified century in a faraway land, Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown) and her younger sister Floria (Brooke Carte) are doing their best to help the people of their famished land get needed supplies. It’s when their father, Lord Baynard (Ray Winstone), receives a marriage proposal for Elodie from Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright) on behalf of her son, Prince Henry (Nick Robinson).

Seeing this alliance as a means to save his land using the marriage dowry, Baynard agrees and sets sail to Isabelle’s fog-protected kingdom with his family, including the girls’ stepmother Lady Bayford (Angela Bassett). The stepmother might be enthusiastic about Elodie’s marriage for a change, but she isn’t the ‘evil stepmother.’

Watch the Trailer of Damsel:

Unfortunately, no such revisionism occurs for the Wicked Queen. By the time Elodie realises her mother-in-law’s vileness, her own husband flings her down, Baazigar-style, into a dark, deep chasm as part of a sacrificial ritual. Only if she got to watch Ready or Not on Prime (sorry to cross-platform here, Netflix) would Elodie have realised it is her cue to run as far as possible if her husband mentions any post-marriage ritual that involves your new relatives acting creepy.

A Still From Damsel

Anyway, Elodie is down in the chasm, and nobody told us this, but she has the bone strength of Black Widow – no matter how great the fall is and how hard you hit the ground, your bones are all intact. More dangerous than the fall is a fire-breathing dragon who wants to kill her, and she realises she is not the only damsel to have been thrown into that chasm. But she could be the only one with the grit to make it out alive.

A Still From Damsel

Where Damsel Didn’t Need Saving…

For most of its parts, Damsel isn’t a bad watch. There are some tense sequences involving Elodie trying to save her skin from the dragon who talks, voiced by The Expanse‘s Shohreh Aghdashloo, who adds quite the chill to the dragon’s silky threats. The dragon itself is a well-rendered CGI creation, a terrifying creature to look at. The fantasy setting of the film is deliberately shorn of the awe factor to fit the brooding mood of the film, while the over-indulgence of visual effects removes the remaining charm. Spaceman Movie Review: Adam Sandler Impresses in This Netflix Space Drama That Doesn’t Quite Live Up To Its Meditative Potential.

A Still From Damsel

Brown makes for a formidable lead. Having handled flower-faced otherworldly beings in the past, the actress has experience tackling CGI beasts from down under and making the viewer go along with her ride. Of course, Stranger Things was more of a team effort, but as a solo lead in Damsel, MBB has enough mettle to own the show. Her veteran co-stars, sadly, do not register the same impact. Angela Bassett, Robin Wright and Ray Winstone work within the outlines of their characters but never turn them into compelling personas. Even when Winstone’s character does a turnabout later in the film, the moment doesn’t feel earned except to offer a weak emotional sequence for the protagonist.

Where Damsel Needed Saving…

Where Brown feels let down in the film is the perilous situations her character is dropped into, which mostly have a convenient cheat code to escape. There is very little ingenuity in how she manages to get herself out of various situations, most of which should have resulted in her death. This removes the tension from several scenes that, in a film promising to be a survival thriller, needed plenty of those.

A Still From Damsel

There are some disturbing deaths, though, courtesy of the dragon, but not grisly enough to earn the Mature rating. However, once the dragon’s past and her true vendetta against the kingdom are revealed, Damsel falls into predictable lanes, and it is only a matter of time before the heroine turns into, eh… khaleesi.

Final Thoughts on Damsel

Millie Bobby Brown’s formidable performance and a couple of her sequences with the dragon provide some gripping moments. Still, Damsel ultimately couldn’t escape the dark chasm of its genre’s conventional trappings and ordinary writing. Damsel is streaming on Netflix.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 08, 2024 08:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).