Damsel review: A princess born through fire, blood, and generational trauma

Netflix’s Damsel may be one of Millie Bobby Brown’s best films to date as the fiery medieval epic takes audiences on a journey full of twists and turns.

After being delayed for a year, Netflix‘s fiery, bloody original film starring their crown jewel Millie Bobby Brown is finally here.

Elodie (Brown) is a strong, resilient young woman who is sentenced to death by dragon after being tricked into a marriage to a handsome prince, but this young woman isn’t going down without a fight.

Damsel is truly Netflix and Brown at their best as they continue to show why their partnership works so well and why Brown is definitely one of the greatest actors of her generation.

Damsel is middle age girlbossing done right

Right from the beginning, you get the sense that Elodie is the kind of independent young woman who don’t need a man that has been portrayed a lot throughout the last few decades. She’s the daughter of a lord who presides over a frozen, husk of a city as most of their crops and other resources are at the point of extinction.

However, hope soon arrives in the form of a marriage proposal from a neighboring kingdom that Elodie and her younger sister, Floria (Brooke Carter), have never heard of before, which is a bit suspicious. But, alas, Elodie’s father isn’t bothered by this fact and accepts on her behalf in order to save their people.

But, Elodie isn’t taking this marriage lying down as she appears incredibly defiant and strong-willed, constantly speaking out of turn and letting everyone around her know what she’s thinking at all times.

This isn’t exactly a new role for Brown as she played a character with a similar personality in Netflix’s Enola Holmes, but she wears the skin so well that it’s hard to be annoyed or tired by the routine.

The tension keeps pace despite trailer giveaways

Like most Netflix projects, if you’ve seen one trailer, you basically know what’s going to happen during the majority of the film, minus a few plot twists here and there.

However, where Damsel shines is that, even if you have seen the trailer, the sense of tension and dread as you realize Elodie’s fate never wavers, which is important in an action movie like this.

I remember feeling the pit of my stomach growing forty minutes into the movie when the action really gets started and that feeling didn’t go away until the credits rolled more than an hour later; a feat that not many Netflix original films can pull off.

Netflix

It all comes down to both pacing and the performances, which are mostly done by Brown as Elodie is on her own against a dragon for the majority of the movie.

You can really feel her despair, hope, dread, sadness, anger, etc. as Brown demonstrates a range of acting that will surely continue to make her star rise long after Stranger Things comes to an end.

At the end of the day, it’s all about generational trauma

While we won’t spoil the biggest twist of the film here, the overall theme of Damsel is all about generational trauma and how our responses to that trauma will shape not only our single lives but also the lives around us for decades.

Elodie is forced to reckon with her family tragedies and how her past can help her get out of the situation she finds herself in. The royal family must grapple with decisions made centuries before any of them were even born and how those decisions continue to force their hands. Hell, even the dragon herself must come to terms with her past and how it hardened her in the present.

Netflix

These intertwining motivations leave the audience feeling conflicting empathy for all parties involved, which is one of the hallmarks of good storytelling.

True, at the end of the day there are clear bad guys and good guys, but you can understand how everyone came to be in their position, making them three-dimensional characters and not cardboard cutouts.

Damsel review: 3/5 stars

While Damsel has a lot of heart behind it, the movie itself doesn’t feel like a grand event like a lot of the movies that have come out around it.

But, that’s what makes it so much fun to watch because not every movie has to feel like it’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment that you’re missing out on.

Sometimes you just want to see a badass girl kick some dragon butt while wielding a sword and that’s perfectly okay.

Damsel is available on Netflix now – find even more amazing movies to stream here.