The Marsh King’s Daughter (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – A woman seeks revenge against the man who kidnapped her mother.

My Take – Winning over an audience through big screen adaptions is a risky business, as what works on paper doesn’t always work on screen. This latest rendition is an adaption of Karen Dionne‘s 2017 bestselling novel, which in turn was an adaption of a popular children’s short story by Hans Christian Andersen.

Adapted for the screen by co-writers Elle Smith and Mark L Smith (The Revenant, Overlord) and directed by Neil Burger (The Upside, Voyagers), the film presents itself as a crime-drama with a promising premise, something on the lines of Room (2015), with a pinch of Where the Crawdads Sing (2022), but result is nothing exceptional, making it quite the forgettable experience.

It’s a slow-paced psychological thriller, not too emotionally intense, and the high points just don’t quite hit their mark. Having not read the book, I was unable to offer a comparison, however, based on the gripping plot, I personally felt the film felt the film fell short when it comes to providing essential insights.

Though it’s serious and tense story-line does manage to engage, the lackluster screenplay seems to be rushing through crucial details, leaving the whole experience somewhat unsatisfactory.

The film features lots of wide and aerial shots of verdant scenery, heightening the contrast between the two worlds the premise represents, but that is never enough to carry the film even though it has solid performances from Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelssohn working in its favor.

The story initially follows a young Helena (Brooklynn Prince), who is born and raised in the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by her recluse father Jacob (Ben Mendelsohn) and mother (Caren Pistorius). Completely unaware that her mother had been abducted and is being held against her will for years, Helena develops a close relationship with and deep admiration for her father and his off-the-grid ways. The two are eventually separated when her mother forces her to join in an escaping, which results in Jacob ending up in prison.

Years later, reintegrated into society, an adult Helena (Daisy Ridley) has her own family and has managed to keep her history secret from everyone, including her husband, Steven (Garrett Hedlund), a university professor and her young daughter, Marigold (Joey Carson).

However, her comfortable suburban life comes crashing down when she is informed by the FBI that her father has escaped from jail and may coming looking for her. Forcing her to finally come to terms with her two disparate lives and the conflicting feelings she holds for the man who raised her.

The film is part psychological drama, part thriller, but not an effective whole. Sure, the story here is pretty intriguing, though it has no mystery element making it feel predictable. Mainly as it never really finds its tone, shifting between family drama, horror suspense, and action in a disheveled, uneven way that fails the potential of its core conflict.

Having got just right the marsh, the mood, and the mesmerizing hold of menace, the film pulls in too many directions, spending far too long in some parts, leaving it very little time for its finale. Some of the film’s most riveting scenes come as Helena, about ten years old, feels overwhelmed by the lights, computer, and coffee maker at a police station compared to the bucolic sounds she knows.

But the film just drowns with inability to integrate suspense from Jacob’s escape with Helena’s emotional journey, including unsolved feelings toward him and her mother. Helena’s complicated bond with her father and her childhood is repeatedly mentioned, as an adult, she misses the connection to nature and claims to feel incomplete wherever she goes, but the film fails to go beyond the expected and superficial.

Yes, the film delivers a solid amount of tension throughout its second act, as Helena becomes almost haunted by the possibility of her father re-entering the carefully protected life she had built in spite of it all. The unease and uncertainty that both the protagonist and the audience feel for a while is one of the most successful elements of the film, but is unfortunately cut short by a third act that return to the marsh and suffers from inaction. Add to that the ambiguous ending that feels like an easy cop-out.

Performances wise, Daisy Ridley delivers a controlled and haunting performance as Helena, a character deeply scarred by her traumatic past. Ridley effectively portrays a woman in constant inner turmoil. As her younger version, Brooklynn Prince also pulls off her role with great semblance.

Ben Mendelsohn is, as always, a menacing presence using subtle movements and that remarkable voice. In smaller roles, Gil Birmingham, Caren Pistorius and Garrett Hedlund don’t get much to do. On the whole, ‘The Marsh King’s Daughter’ is an unfulfilling thriller that drowns in predictability and plodding.