The Marsh King’s Daughter

Grade: C+

It’s difficult to know when to stop summarizing the plot for The Marsh King’s Daughter. The trailer I’d been seeing for months answers a big question that you might want to be ignorant of beforehand. I won’t mention it here.

Based on a novel by Karen Dionne, the movie begins with a family of three living in a very remote shack out in the marsh land. They are so far off the grid, and live off what they have, that it could be 1950 or 2023. We don’t know (yet). 12-year-old Helena (Brooklynn Prince from Cocaine Bear and The Florida Project) absolutely adores her dad (Ben Mendelsohn). She would rather spend the day hunting with him than hanging out with mom, even if it means having twice as many chores to do when she gets home.

I didn’t understand why the mother appeared to resent the two of them, especially him. It seemed like a perfectly happy life otherwise. Just keep watching/reading; here comes the other shoe. It turns out he kidnapped her about 12 years ago, removed her from civilization, and got her pregnant with Helena. She manages to escape with Helena one day, and they have a “normal” life after that. If you’re wondering what time period we’re in here, Helena passes a movie theater displaying a poster for Mulholland Drive – which would put us in the fall of 2001.

This is a bit of a Room situation with an obvious parallel to Where the Crawdads Sing. We cut to about 20 years later. Helena is in her 30s, and played by Daisy Ridley (Rey from the 2015-2019 Star Wars trilogy). She has a husband and a young daughter of her own. When word gets out that her father has escaped from a prison transfer (he’d been locked up all this time), Helena has to come to terms with finally coming clean to her family about her past (she’d changed names several times and gave everyone the same rehearsed made-up backstory). Not to mention the possibility that he will show up, or has already found her, or has been watching her the whole time. Living in the woods for years has a way of making one resourceful. The story is alluring, but Ridley is a bit flat and bland at times. Rosamund Pike or Aubrey Plaza might have given the role more oomph. I was on the fence about whether to recommend this, and the conclusion ended up being the tie-breaker.

Everything hinged on how the ending would be handled. At first, it looked like it would go in a bold, unpredictable direction. Then I thought it would be left open-ended. Either option would have been refreshing. But no, it settles for the safe route, with somebody remarkably bouncing back from injuries which should be severely debilitating. If you’re a fan of nature and the outdoors, watch it for the locations. Otherwise, The Marsh King’s Daughter doesn’t quite rise above water level.

Grade: C+