Damsel: Not As Distressing as Some Have Said

• Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
• March 8, 2024
• Netflix

A young woman is forced into an arranged marriage only to learn she is to be a sacrifice used to save her betrothed’s kingdom from a dragon.

It has been said by others and I must agree that this movie starts out quite slowly. The first half hour or so of Damsel is all about the arranged marriage and the royal wedding of Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown) to Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) in the hopes that it will help her kingdom of not-important-enough-to-get-a-name to survive abject poverty and harsh winters. Considering it is her homeland and this is something they expect the problems sound like an issue of poor administration and not of a harsh environment. Just saying an arranged marriage but not be the solution.

A stronger film could have been achieved by simply cutting out everything that occurred in the barren kingdom as well as the opening narration. It all established nothing that was not revisited on the journey to the dragon kingdom or by various characters when there. It was just unnecessary padding to bring the film to over 90 minutes. It’s just so much redundant set up that you’re sorely tempted to turn the film off before it gets better.

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and friends do their best to frame the 5’3” Millie Bobby Brown as a fighting badass. It works up until she is standing near something taller like people or a solitary horse. There is no getting around height, but you can creatively obscure it. Nor does her build look particularly athletic to the point of being able to evade the dragon in the numerous strenuous ways she does.

As action heroines go the character of Elodie is nothing too special. Not a colossal disappointment but there is little to interest you in the character. The impressive visuals that regularly surround her make you kinda care but only because you might see something good. This was clearly designed as a vehicle for Millie Bobby Brown but while she does no disservice to anything she doesn’t really do too much special. But then again I have trouble buying someone as short as her in an action role.

Angela Bassett plays Lady Bayford who is the stepmother to Elodie, and she really stands out in this movie. One because she is horribly underutilized. Two because she’s one of two African-Americans in a predominantly white cast and the only African-American that plays a prominent character. While Angela Bassett is a fine actress, I am guessing she was put into the role to deflect criticisms that the cast was not diverse enough. After all only the genuinely important people in Damsel are white. Lady Bayford did nothing for Elodie that she was not already thinking or doing.

I am a little bothered by Elodie making peace with the Dragon (excellently voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo). Scratch that. It’s not that she made peace with the dragon, but that she then leads the dragon back to the castle and allows it to wipe out everyone in the castle who may or may not have known the truth about what was going on. Did everyone in the island kingdom know? They never really got beyond the core members of the royal court being aware. My point is our heroine and her new dragon bestie slaughtered a bunch of people who may have been innocent of nothing more than being the descendants of interlopers.

Not only that but in the wrap-up of the finale it certainly sounds like Elodie’s kingdom pillaged the ruins of the island kingdom she was at. How is this heroic? And then she leaves her stepmother in charge of the kingdom and goes off and travels the world. She slaughters possibly innocent people in the name of revenge and then essentially abdicates the throne to her stepmother and young sister so she can go sightseeing with a small crowd of loyal people and her new dragon friend.

There are scenes even Zack Snyder would’ve said this film was too dark. I often had trouble seeing what was going on and this is especially important since so much of this occurs in the mountains and in that cave.

Damsel is not terrible, but it’s not anything special. Despite a slow start, it ends much better than it begins even if the ending makes you question why Elodie is considered the good guy. With a little judicious editing it could have been so much better. Not a waste but no must-see.