Damsel (Netflix, 2024)
Millie Bobby Brown can hardly put a foot wrong these days. But what does this tell you about her new movie Damsel, which is now on Netflix?
In this action adventure fantasy drama the Stranger Things star plays a classic fairytale character: the Damsel in distress.
Only this time around, the damsel can’t rely on a handsome prince to come and rescue her, so she has to save her own skin. And in the final stages of the movie, she has the scars and bruises to show for it!
Damsel is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, whose short film Esposados scored an Oscar nomination, after which he made well received feature films like Intacto and 28 Weeks Later.
Damsel is written by Dan Mazeau, who also has some big credits to his name like Fast X and Wrath of the Titans.
Damsel tells the story of Elodie (Brown) a young lady who likes to go hunting and ride horses, but is suddenly told by her loving father, Lord Bayfour (Ray Winstone) that he has to marry her off to the prince of the wealthy kingdom Aurea, because he needs the gold to make sure the people of his impoverished region will survive the winter.
It’s a noble enough cause, her kind and wise stepmother (Angela Bassett) agrees, while her younger sister Floria (Brooke Carter) is very enthusiastic and simply wishes it were her.
And even though at first Elodie doesn’t like this proposition one bit, she makes peace with sacrificing her own happiness for that of her people. She also thinks that she will have a perfect wedding with a perfect wedding dress to match.
But there are signs that something is off and after the wedding Elodie is thrown into a pit as a sacrifice to appease a bloodthirsty dragon. Elodie isn’t the first, but merely the latest in a long line of princesses to suffer a similar fate.
Fortunately, at least some of the others have managed to leave clues behind before falling victim, in the hope that one day one of them will make it out.
It’s never really in doubt who that princess will be, the moral of the story being that when Elodie realizes that no one is coming to save her she has to save herself and claim her independence.
Damsel is a spirited, and yes, a very feminist movie and it’s not a surprise that in this movie the patriarchy gets its ass kicked yet again.
At times, Elodie is the live action version of a modern Disney princess, who has a lot of heart and isn’t afraid to take matters in her own hand.
At the same it’s all a bit more morally complex than you might expect, as Elodie’s main antagonist is Aurea’s evil Queen Isabelle, played ‘maleficently’ by Robin Wright, while the unexpectedly charismatic dragon (voiced by the great Shohreh Aghdashloo) proves to be a complicated character and has suffered some cruel losses too.
Not all the good ones will make it out alive in this movie, and while female solidarity is a beautiful thing, not every other female is your friend.
The seventy million dollar budget is definitely on the screen, and this is one of those Netflix movies that could have been in theaters if the Lords of Netflix had chosen to do so. It would have given Millie Bobby Brown the opportunity to show that she is a real movie star outside the Netflix bubble too.
And with a strong supporting cast that includes the added value elements of Ray Winstone, Angela Bassett and Robin Wright, it looks like this movie could have been a solid theatrical win for the Millie Bobby Brown camp.
No doubt Damsel will do well for the streamer regardless of the missed theatrical opportunity. Aside from Stranger Things, MBB (who also serves as a producer here) already has a second Netflix-franchise in Enola Holmes. Maybe Damsel will become the third!