The King's Daughter

Set in France during the rule of King Louis XIV (Pierce Brosnan), The King, having grown fearful of his own mortality enlists a ship of fisherman lead by captain Yves De La Croix (Benjamin Walker) to find a mermaid (Fan Bingbing) so a ceremony can be performed during an eclipse where The King will consumer her life force and gain immortality. Meanwhile at a convent, free spirited orphan, Mari-Josephe (Kaya Scodelario), has been summoned to Versailles by the king's Father Confessor, Pere La Chaise (William Hurt), at the king's request to be the court composer unaware she's the king's daughter. As Marie Joseph adjusts to the strange and unfamiliar world of Versailles, she finds herself called by the mermaid and befriends her.

The King's Daughter is a very loose adaptation of the 1997 novel The Moon and the Sun, written by Vonda N. McIntyre, better known for her contributions to Star Wars and Star Trek in novel form with aspects such as the given names of Sulu and Uhura rendered canon. The movie had a long development cycle beginning in 1999 with The Jim Henson Company and eventually moving to Walt Disney Pictures where it lingered in development hell. The project was revived I 2013 when Sean McNamara joined the project as director and filming finally beginning in 2014. While initially set for an August 2014 release by Paramount Pictures, three weeks prior to the release Paramount pulled the film from the release schedule without explanation with only vague stories of "additional visual effects work" released through industry trades. The film sat on a shelf for 8 years in limbo with McNamara having released six movies in the interim since filming it. After being retitled The King's Daughter, the movie was acquired by smaller distributor Gravitas Ventures who re-edited the film with some opening and closing narration by Julie Andrews. When the movie was released in the January dumping ground of 2022, reviews were not kind and the film only gathered about $1.8 million against its $40 million budget. The King's Daughter has all the telltale signs of a troubled production that's been attempted to be salvaged by being reversed engineered into a Disney-esque fairy tale, but whatever vision originally intended has been clouded by years of post-production hell and misguided salvage.

From the beginning where our film opens with a CGI rendered book opening as read by Julie Andrews as if we're being told a fairy tale, it becomes painfully clear that this narration and this book was not the original intent. After a "blink and you'll miss it" text dump expositing about Louis the XIV and his quest to find the mermaid, Miss Andrews has the thankless job of repeating the same information over again as we go through a poorly rendered CGI book with pictures that are just stills from the movie run through a filter to make them resemble painting (honestly it looks like it's not that far above most gimmick filters on your average smartphone). The opening act is just a mess with the story jumping between The Convent, Versaille, and the expedition to find the mermaid lead by Yves De La Croix and it's both very choppy and rapidly paced so the audience is being suffocated with a lot of exposition about the mermaid, the state of France's and King Louis's power and standing, or various other aspects of the plot that are just rushed through and not given the buildup they should be given especially in a story where you trying to merge real life people with fantasy elements.

The movie fares maybe the tiniest bit better in the acting department, but even then I'm not sure I'd classify any performance as "good". William Hurt gives regrettably his final on screen performance before his death in 2022 (albeit filmed in 2014) and for what it's worth Hurt does do a decent job of conveying Pere La Chaise as a man torn between his devotion to God and loyalty to his king with Hurt's more subdued delivery fitting well with a character who's supposed to be a man of faith. Pierce Brosnan is entertaining as King Louis the XIV, even if he does flirt with going over the top, and the scenes between Brosnan and Hurt do seem like they're trying to bring something to this movie. Kaya Scodelario plays our main protagonist as Marie-Josephe and while Scodelario has had a successful career since this movie with her part in the Maze Runner trilogy, Crawl, and the Ted Bundy film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Scodelario is given nothing to work with as she is portrayed in a very clunky fashion that feels like a crude facsimile of a Disney princess archetype. Benjamin Walker also plays Yves as the love interest and the chemistry between the two of them just doesn't come through on camera. Fan Bingbing gets massively shorts rifted here as the mermaid really doesn't have a character down to the fact she can't talk and serves as a glorified macguffin who often doesn't share the screen with live action actors with the mermaid effects falling into the uncanny valley. The movie tries to file down some of its rougher edges from whatever the earlier version of this film was to try and make it similar to one of those Disney live-action remakes, but when you have scenes of King Louis confessing his sexual indiscretions or dry sequences discussing the nature God versus science (with Science represented with a cartoonishly evil strawman), it doesn't seem like the type of movie that's made for a family audience because despite it's attempts to frame this story as a fairy tale, it just isn't and was clearly never intended to be presented this way.

The King's Daughter is just a mess. While there's clear indication the actors are trying, their work is faced with a Sisyphean challenge against confused editing and a story lacking in clarity as to how and why certain things came into being. The movie just doesn't work on any level, but especially not as the family centered fairy tale it's been reversed engineered into.

There is escapism with fantasy and then there are fantasies that just go into the realm of the ridiculous, this....is the second.

Pierce Brosnan was just not good in this, I literally found myself squinting at the screen at how bad he was. There are other actors involved that are good actors that do a decent job with what they are given, but truly...even with MY imagination, I just couldn't stomach this movie. I felt let down...badly, let down.

This story just never seemed to know what it wanted to be. The main lead female was just...lost, the story meandered, the acting was well...camp at best, with a few good characters thrown in here and there. But for the most part, I found the story fairly irredeemable.

The sad thing is, in the book the lead female character is quite strong, here she's...wishy-washy, and I hate wishy-washy.

I have no idea what took so long to release this movie, but I suspect there were people going "you spent how much on this piece of flaming **ap!?"

Again, there are actors within this that I like, but had Disney gotten ahold of it and done it well...it would have been so much better. Why? Because there would have actually been a decent story-line with direction.

Although I wouldn't consider it a kids movie, or much of a family movie which was what I thought it would be. The topics of conversation at points insinuating very adult things. So it made for an odd mash up, a fairy tale for adults. It was nice to see a high ranking religious official that was truly a good man and not the villain for once. That would have been very clique, and typical of most movies set in this time. Everyone loves to vilify religion, yes I know historically there were, and still are, horrendous acts done in the name of religion but they are few compared to the many that are not. It was just nice to see the good side for once. The overall story was fairly simple, not an action packed adventure. I think a lot of people were bored because they were expecting a swashbuckler or a "man in the iron mask" level of action and depth, leading them to be disappointed. I went into this not having much of an idea what it was, I hadn't seen any type of trailer, or heard anything about it. All I knew was what the info attached said, which wasn't much. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, the acting was good, the visuals were fun. It was well put together and moved at an even pace. For me other was worth the watch.

For review of the plot, read other reviews...

The costuming is AWFUL. Late 17th to early 18th century French court was visually *stunning*. Extant clothes from the time are brightly colored, with huge skirts and layers of ruffles. This was a time of huge silk imports and fantastical wigs.

What do we get in this movie?

2010s high fashion on a shoestring budget. The colors are there, but the silhouette is nowhere to be found. Pencil skirts, no one wearing sleeves. Ugh.

Mirror Mirror did better 18th century dresses, and that's a fairytale.

Frankly, the lack of costuming knowledge makes this movie unwatchable.

LIKES:

The Pace: There is not much to say on this one outside of it is a good pace to be engaging and surprisingly deep in all the characters they put on the screen. The King's Daughter does not gallivant around with long winded speeches, lengthy openings, or even an establishment of kingdoms other fantasy films try to do. It just dives into the stakes, lays them out for what needs to be done, and then starts moving the pieces to the end. Fun, simplistic, and enjoyable, the movie does still give enough time for the audience to get some character depth to at least some of the players in the tale.

The Music: Another movie to fill our ears with a mixture of genres and types, The King's Daughter is one part orchestral piece and one part modern day alternative. The symphony pieces particularly are my favorite as thy really fit into the world being established by the visual elements. Meanwhile, the modern day alternative holds a place for just mixing some of the classical up, while also acting as an emotional stamp to the scene at hand. It's again nothing that is mind blowing, but it fits the bills well for the grand scheme of things.

The Setting: A good fairytale is all about getting the world created for me, and the King's Daughter's budget achieved this goal for me. Though again not the most astounding build and display of movie big budget, the palace of Versailles is spectacular to play host to the story. It's large hallways, the foreboding chambers, even the gardens themselves all feel like an interconnected palace that holds both good and evil amidst its manicured grounds. As for the chambers to which the mermaid is held, again something that would be fun to have as sort of a pool playground, and meets the functionality and purpose that a palace might hold such chambers in. Regardless, the setting really brings the fantasy element to life, and kudos for the attention to details they pulled to get this movie feeling like the hybrid of history and fiction.

The Costumes: Beautiful to say the least, The King's Daughter serves as a fashion display of the courts from long ago, but of course having the modern day fabrics to recreate them. This movie manages to bring the beauty of main characters out in a gorgeous light, filling us with a wardrobe of variety that you could use for your next Halloween soiree. It again fits the high society life, but still has the class status you would expect from the way things operated back in those times. Even more so, the movie also manages to make a farce of the extravagant makeup that was used as well, wielding a sword that cut through the "expectations" and slashing to the core of what that all meant. It's a clever use of costumes, if a bit shallow and simplistic, but just again getting the costumes to look as nice as they did is a nod to the hard work that they did for crafting such fine elements.

The Acting: Hard to pick, but most likely my favorite, the cast of The King's Daughter did a lot of good for the material they were handed. Pierce Brosnan is very elegant and seems to have seated himself on the throne of kingly titles. It's about the same cut he has done in the past few pieces, but I found it a little more grounded and fitting in the complexity of King Louis. Never going too far into overacting, the role has a lot more interaction and credibility than I expected of it, and he pulled it off well. Our lovely mermaid, was not too bad herself, though for high casting call she really did not have the most speaking or even integration compared to the others. Motion capture wise she gets my nod for helping make the mermaid come to life in terms of motion and facial expressions, but that's about it. As for our leads, they are the victors for leading the scenes and really helping establish the dynamic that most will come to see this film for. The male lead is handsome in many physical attributes, but the vulnerability and stalwart bravado are balanced well and make a great male lead that just feels human and is fun. Meanwhile, the lovely leading lady accomplishes much in the film given again the material she had to follow. As the lead of Marie, she held elegance in her mannerisms, and the strength of the girl power movement that is a trend. However, the character is not perfect, and the in your face moments are minimal as she just comes as character struggling to fit into a new world. Her execution is almost flawless, her physical acting quite good in the action and dance scenes, while her delivery is just fantastic in her means to convey her feelings. It was a great performance for a great character, very fitting for the fairytale theme they were going for.

DISLIKES:

Shallow Development: Because it is going for that simple tale approach, the many characters in the movie are rather flat in terms of the depth they could have. There is potential that is met at parts of the movie, but the connective whole of all the players in this game of altered history don't quite feel complete. This is especially true for the mermaid, who has a story, but it's nothing impressive and more a tool and alternate twist approach that is only okay for me. Throw in the darker characters who hold much in the stake of the political affairs, and you again find only half-baked characters who do little to fully mix things up in this tale. More time and more focus could have helped, but in a movie like this that balance could be hard to achieve.

The Action: I know, it's not supposed to be a Marvel movie, but there were plenty of points and use of props that could have given us a little more impasse and challenge to completing the tale. Sadly, the King's Daughter failed to give us a challenge or an exciting conclusion that would leave us remembering the scenes decades later. I again found it fitting, but it seemed a bit too easy int eh grand scheme of things.

A Bit Heavy Handed On The Religious Gestures Given the religion importance of the times, the movie did well with the dialogue for expressing the thoughts and dependence on religion for sovereignty they held. However, sometimes the jokes and the blatant use of the name of God was a little too over the head insulting, and the running jokes got stale. It's a small thing for me, but there was room for better dialogue and a little too much down the line of God.

The Animation of the Mermaid: While it is true that they did better than I could dream of, I can say that The King's Daughter made an interesting choice for bringing the mythological creature to life. We've seen plenty of movies make the half fish/half human characters look real, but this particular one made a CGI digital model that looked a bit off from the actress they casted. It moved beautifully, but there was a lot of things that could have been better with some more time, budget and animation.

The Story: It's sweet, it's motivating, and it's compelling to see these worlds melt together. However, the story is very odd as well and required more time and fleshing out to really maximize it. The two worlds do agree to an extent, but logical gaps, geography limitations, and again a lack of obstacles and stakes blunted the full magic this story could have. When you tie in the religious work ins, minimize the story of the fantasy world to the bare bones and not really incorporate the characters to a stronger extent... the movie's already stretching story is more limited. And of course plenty of plot holes to ignore to make it work.

The VERDICT:

The King's Daughter accomplishes some goals that I did not expect it to accomplish from the trailers. It's a fun pace, with a world that delivers the promise of history and fantasy meeting together, helping immerse you into the world and enjoy the historical culture. With great costumes to fully perform in and look great in, while also having music to help bring the atmosphere up at this time. And the acting is pretty good with the material they were given in this adaptation. However, the movie's budget and attention are noticeable with much of the plot, story, and animation taking a hit and not reaching the full potential I think they wanted. It's certainly not the worst project to come out of the woodwork, but the movie certainly is one that feels appropriate for a streaming service to maximize its potential. From this, my scores are:

Action/Adventure/Family: 6.5 Movie Overall: 6.0.