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Elodie and Floria are dazzled by the warmth, generosity and luxury of the Queen’s home, and heartened by her welcome. Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) appears to be as charming as fairy tale princes are expected to be. His mother (Robin Wright as Isabelle) is another story, stately but remote, coldly rejecting the attempt at friendship from Elodie’s stepmother, Lady Bayford (an underused Angela Bassett).
Despite Lady Bayford’s growing concerns that something is wrong, the wedding goes ahead, with all the pomp and circumstance that a fantasy royal wedding deserves. Patrick Tatopoulos’ production design and Amanda Monk’s costumes are magnificent throughout. The wedding scene is spectacular. Pay attention to the moments in which we see Elodie being helped into her spectacular wedding dress. It’s not the usual tomboy-to-beauty makeover moment, and its meaning will be revealed later.
After the wedding there is a strange ceremony near the mouth of a cave. Ominously, the courtiers are masked. Isabelle runs her dagger across the newlyweds’ palms and mixes her blood. And then it turns out that Elodie will be sacrificed to the dragon inside the cavern, a part of the centuries-old agreement that prevents the dragon from preying on the kingdom.
And so we go from “Cinderella” to “Die Hard” in a cave, as Elodie tries to escape the dragon, again, exceptionally well-crafted and voiced with exquisitely smoky menace by Shohreh Aghdashloo. Do you remember that dress? It might as well have been designed by James Bond’s Q, as Elodie McGuyvers turned it into a survival kit, taking out what my Hollywood costume designer daughter tells me is a corset (the stiff board attached to the bodice) and scraping it against the cavern. wall to sharpen it and turn it into a dagger. He also uses some of the fabric as protection and tears off a lot of it to give him more freedom of movement, which always results in very attractive shreds. Elodie also finds some resources in the cave along with some corpses of other princesses. There is an entire wall covered with her names, written as they despaired of escape. She discovers bioluminescent worms that will help light her path.
This section of the film plays out like a video game, with Elodie facing obstacle after obstacle, making some progress, but not enough. Brown is alone for a long period and is effective at alternating fear and determination. There are some terrifying surprises, especially after other characters arrive at the cavern.
It’s a shame this isn’t on a big screen, because the sets are full of attractive details that reinforce some of the script’s weaknesses. However, even on the smaller screen, the fresh, female-led take on the traditional tale, which includes a little twist that the sisterhood is powerful near the end, makes it worth watching.