- Title: The Marsh King’s Daughter
- IMDb: link
Daisy Ridley stars in this adaptation of the 2017 novel of the same name as a woman still haunted by the conflicting nature of her childhood raised in the Michigan wilderness. We see a bit of Helena’s (Brooklynn Prince) childhood with her domineering father (Ben Mendelsohn) teaching her about nature before mother and daughter escape into a city for the first time and it’s revealed he had kidnapped her mother (Caren Pistorius) years before making her his wife.
Fast-forward several years, and now Helena (Ridley) has carved out a new life with a husband (Garrett Hedlund) and daughter (Joey Carson) of her own whom she’s never spoken of about her childhood or her connection to the “Marsh King” as he was named by the tabloids. The escape of her father from prison, however, forces Helena to confront the the truth about her past and confront her father who wants nothing more than for Helena to abandon her life and husband and bring her daughter back into nature with him.
The conflict from The Marsh King’s Daughter comes more from the inner conflict of Helena than the conflict created by the return of her father. If the film had designs on a character study or more stratighforward drama, the ingredients are all here to develop that. However, The Marsh King’s Daughter devolves into a thriller instead. As a result, framed by both her fear and tender memories of him, the necessary tension to push the thriller forward is inconsistent and Helena’s father can never be the monster it needs for the final act to pay off.
All that said, there are still quite a few aspects of the film of interest, even if The Marsh King’s Daughter never quite clicks. These mostly revolve around Daisy Ridley who gets to run a gamut of emotion over the course of the film before eventually becoming an action star as Helena puts her father’s training into practice fiercly protecting her family just as he taught her all those years ago.
Watch the trailer
