‘Damsel’: Millie Bobby Brown Is Your New Mother of Dragons
“There are many stories of chivalry where the heroic knight saves the damsel in distress,” a voice informs us before a single image appears on the screen. “This is not one of them.” It probably isn’t necessary to prep and/or warn viewers that Damsel, Netflix’s expensive-looking throw of the cinematic D&D dice, isn’t your typical sword-and-sorcery fantasy before it’s even started, but thanks for the heads up. For one thing, there’s no sorcery in it unless you count the magic that certain performers bring to any project they’re involved in. (Looking at you, Angela Bassett.) More importantly, it’s designed as a star vehicle for Millie Bobby Brown, who’s made her name playing smart, resourceful, and tougher-than-leather young women more than capable of handling themselves in extraordinary situations. The poster is a close-up of Ms. Brown’s soot-flecked face, brow furrowed, and blade at the ready. Female self-empowerment is more or less a given. No one’s expecting Disney-princess wish fulfillment here.
Her character, Elodie, is being groomed to become a princess, though not by choice. Her family and their village have fallen on hard times, and Elodie’s father, Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone), has essentially bartered her off to a royal family in need of a future queen. The dowry will allow everyone to last a long, hard winter, so she reluctantly agrees. Along with her dad, her kind stepmother Lady Bayford (Bassett), and her little sister Floria (Brooke Carter), Elodie sets sail to the remote island where she’s to be sold wedded. Before the mists part and reveal her new home, the family spies two giant stone dragons, the lanterns in their gaping jaws guiding travelers into the bay. This is what’s known in certain storytelling circles as “really fucking ominous.”
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Once Elodie meets her future husband, Prince Henry (Love, Simon‘s Nick Robinson), she’s relieved to discover that he’s handsome, kind, and a fine rider of horses. Yet something seems a little off about her mother-in-law, the current queen — played by Robin Wright, who knows a few things about princess brides. It’s not the chilly demeanor, the curt replies, or the blatant racism she displays. More like she’s keeping some sort of secret behind that tight smile of hers. There’s also that odd light shining from a cave deep within the mountains, which Elodie happens to catch one night. Oh, that’s just something to do with an age-old ritual, the Prince tells her. Nothing to see here.
So Elodie goes along with the wedding and is content to be whisked away right after the ceremony in a golden coach to what she’s told will be a special reception of sorts. Never mind that her family isn’t there — they’ve been paid and summarily dismissed — or that it’s taking place at the mouth of a cave, or that the assembled, masked guests appear to have taken a momentary break from an Eyes Wide Shut-style orgy. The Prince has her back. Until he doesn’t. And it’s right after he’s tossed her into an open chasm that leads deep inside a stone fortress that Elodie realizes she’s not a bride. She’s a sacrifice.
Maybe it’s got something to do with the giant dragon. Oh, right, so: This particular kingdom has been plagued for centuries by a massive, winged, fire-breathing monstrosity, who — in Damsel‘s brief but hectic preamble — has literally made toast of all the king’s men. And sure enough, once Elodie gets her bearings, she discovers that she’s fallen into its lair. As voiced by Iranian actor Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog, 24), this eloquent reptile purrs, growls, and taunts her newfound prey; she’s the type of predator who likes to play with her food. Thus kicks off a cat-and-mouse game, or rather, a beast-and-beauty hunt in which Elodie must Lara Croft her way through caverns, over cliffs, and under pools of water, putting together clues left by her late princess predecessors in order to avoid becoming this season’s snack.
Once our hero is literally dropped into a danger zone, Damsel becomes as much a survivalist thriller as it is a Game of Thrones-style fantasy. And though it looks as if piles of gold have been gifted to the filmmakers in order to give this a GoT level of spectacle and the sort of VFX you associate with big-screen blockbusters (though the chances of you seeing this on a truly big screen are highly unlikely), it’s a movie that works a lot better when it sticks to its star running, jumping, dodging, ducking and, eventually, fighting back. That’s more of a comfort zone for Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who specializes in horror films that involve pursuit and tight spots (28 Weeks Later, Intruders). As a somewhat peripheral player in those recent Godzilla/Kong “MonsterVerse” movies, Brown is usually called upon to rally other folks to aid or fight behemoths when she’s not flipping the bird to the human-sized bad guys. Here, however, her character must take up the battle herself, and you can feel the movie building to a declaration of independence, especially when Elodie’s little sister gets dragged into her predicament. This young woman does not need a gaggle of gangly ’80s teens, a father figure, or a famous-detective older brother to bail her out. She certainly doesn’t need some generic knight in shining armor to rescue her, thank you very much.
And as with the Enola Holmes movies, Brown is the best part of this feminist spin on what’s usually a boys’ adventure narrative involving slashing swords and slaying beasts. You can feel Netflix pushing their chips toward her as an infinitely usable, in-house action hero, in the same way that the producer-star is utilizing the streamer/studio to self-generate her career into a more mature phase. When Elodie is led to the lair’s entrance right after getting hitched, she’s still in the wedding gown and constricting corset that gives her the appearance of a medieval doll. By the time she emerges from her underground prison in payback mode, that dress has been burnt, ripped to shreds, and splattered in her blood. This former princess now looks like the person in that poster, if not the most intense retail assistant at Hot Topic, and there’s a sense that this makeover is operating on two levels. This damsel has been viewed as a human dollar sign, an offering and someone expected to be pretty and keep quiet. Now she is your new Mother of Dragons, ready to wipe the floor with anyone who thinks otherwise. The only thing in distress here is her couture and a culture that would hold her back.
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