Verdict
Summary
A good old-fashioned thriller based on a literary source, The Marsh King’s Daughter took me by surprise likely because I had zero expectations going in, and it’s a real shame it bombed so hard in theaters. It’s the rare “strong female lead” film that I actually was totally on board with because the “strong male antagonist” was so dimensional and interesting.
Plot:
A young woman must face the reality that her dangerous father is coming for her … and her daughter.
Review:
A survivalist – The Marsh King (played by Ben Mendelsohn) – has been living way off the grid in the wilderness with his family for years. His wife is a soft spoken, submissive whose only care in the world seems to be for the daughter they share, a little scrapper named Helena. The Marsh King has taught Helena how to hunt, how to forage, and how to survive on nothing, and when a fateful day comes when Helena realizes that her father is, in fact, a murderer and an abuser who has been keeping her and her mother (who was kidnapped and enslaved by her father when she was young) captive, the moment completely shatters her reality. Flash forward some 20 years, and Helena (played as an adult by Daisy Ridley) has all but erased her childhood identity from her current reality where she is married to a decent man (played by Garrett Hedlund), has a numbing office job, and is a protective mother to a little girl. Neither her husband nor their daughter has an inkling to her difficult past, but when The Marsh King stages a daring prison transfer escape, the media has a frenzy about the story and Helena is approached by the FBI about the matter, putting her and her family at risk. With The Marsh King likely headed straight for her (by some miracle he has figured out where she lives), Helena must take the fight to her father … in the wilderness where they can meet and battle on common ground.
A good old-fashioned thriller based on a literary source, The Marsh King’s Daughter took me by surprise likely because I had zero expectations going in, and it’s a real shame it bombed so hard in theaters. It’s the rare “strong female lead” film that I actually was totally on board with because the “strong male antagonist” was so dimensional and interesting. The film is well cast, and the film’s violence climax is well earned, having been built up to a proper crescendo where the stakes matter. Director Neil Burger did a commendable job with the characterizations and plot development, and there’s never a moment in the film that I didn’t believe or feel invested in to the max. A solid thriller that feels almost timeless, The Marsh King’s Daughter deserves a look.
Lionsgate just released a Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Code combo pack of The Marsh King’s Daughter, and it comes with an audio commentary, and a making-of feature.
