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Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s “Damisela” wants to make sure we get the point: the film begins with a voice-over narration to clarify that “this is not” a story of chivalry and heroic knights. Millie Bobby Brown, as said damsel, saves herself with wit and rage – a nice concept, but probably a touch more telling when production was announced in 2020.
In the style of a fairy tale, “Damsel” presents a centuries-old story about a group of brave soldiers, a kingdom in trouble, and the evil dragon who tries to wipe them all out. (Maybe No Trying to colonize an island predominantly populated by fire-breathing beasts?) What follows are detours, flashbacks, visions and wooden dialogue. At least the action is good and Brown is as active as ever.
Elodie (Brown) is the brave daughter of Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone), whose miserable kingdom is dying. When we meet her, she is cutting down a tree in a barren land while she berates her little sister Floria (Brooke Carter) for not working hard when her people are cold and hungry. Elodie is a compassionate leader and she is not afraid to speak her mind. In short, she’s not the kind of person you want to betray and throw into a dragon’s pit.
Still, Elodie doesn’t quite understand when an evil nun (wearing a red headdress that could only be described as “disastrous”) arrives at her father’s gloomy castle and proposes leaving town: the nuns’ kingdom has gold and a beautiful prince. Elodie resists. (“That’s no reason to get married!”) Hello? Do you remember your cold and hungry people? Her seemingly romantic stance on marriage is one of the many details that Dan Mazeau’s script addresses once and then ignores.
Soon, the family sets sail for the kingdom of Aurea (Elodie says she’s “never heard of” the place, an inadvertently very funny joke that could use many more). Aurea is lush, beautiful and adorned with paraphernalia of gold and dragons. And there’s a strange, rugged peak just outside the city limits, one that, Elodie points out, hosts a fire-focused event on its first night in Aurea.
Even after an encounter between her father and the steely Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright) that leaves Lord Bayford very upset, Elodie is engaged to the handsome but distant Prince Henry (Nick Robinson). Minutes after the wedding, the couple is dragged up the side of that strange, craggy peak where a group of Henry’s faithful are dressed in their best “Eyes Wide Shut” cosplay. They’re frothing over an “ancestral ceremony” hosted by Queen Elizabeth at the world’s spookiest event venue.
Sign: Elodie in the dragon pit. The dragon (voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo) is mysterious, terrifying, twisted, and has killed many young princesses. As Elodie makes her way through the cave, she learns more about the women who came before her, she interacts with some very cute magical slugs, and tries to his own version of Batman’s cave climbing in “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Mazeau’s script offers some compelling twists. There’s the obvious “she’s a damsel, but she’s No in Distress,” Angela Bassett as her stepmother (she’s not evil!), and some details about Elodie’s interests (animals and mazes, mainly). The gist of the story remains that women can be dragon slayers, at any time. imitation of “Game of Thrones” they want, in whatever generally medieval period they find themselves in. That’s still valuable, if familiar and, at times, entertaining.
“28 Weeks Later” and “Intruders” director Fresnadillo delivers impressive world-building and a couple of effective jump scares, despite the budget constraints that come with a streaming-only film. He’s also powerful in smaller doses than the dragon (although it’s annoying that we never know his name).
There are many things that seem to be left unsaid in “Damsel.” With a tone that ranges from dizzying to somber, it’s unclear what we should take from the story of the dragon, or Elodie and Floria’s dead mother, or the dead princess who has been revived to help Elodie. It’s rated PG-13 for “sequences of strong creature violence, action and gory images,” not to mention the multiple scenes of emotional devastation that are likely to disturb the PG-10 set.
Fresnadillo plans to stay in the fantastical world of medieval royalty with an upcoming live-action version of “The Sword in the Stone” for Disney+, and ideally, “Damsel” will provide a model for improvement. Of course women can slay dragons, but can we play the script again before they go into battle? It will only make that lady, and her own fairy tale, that much stronger.
Grade: C+
“Damsel” begins streaming on Netflix on Friday, March 8.