The Marsh King’s Daughter movie review

MOVIE TITLE: The Marsh King’s Daughter

This mystery thriller movie is now available to stream online.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour 49 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: B-

IN A NUTSHELL:

A woman seeks revenge against the man who kidnapped her mother.

This movie is directed by Neil Burger and written by Elle Smith, Mark L. Smith, and Karen Dionne based on the book by Karen Dionne.

THINGS I LIKED:

It’s great to see Daisy Ridley outside of a Star Wars movie. She’s got the acting chops and fierce physicality for this kind of movie, so I hope to see her in more films soon.
I didn’t even recognize Ben Mendelsohn with all of that facial hair! He’s consistently fantastic in everything he does. He and Daisy Ridley both starred in Star Wars movies. They’re the reason why you would want to watch this film.
We get to learn some tips about surviving in the wilderness and hunting animals.
Beautiful cinematography.
I’ve never read the book the movie is based on, so I can’t tell you how they compare, but I’ve heard that the movie is better if you haven’t read the book and don’t know the mystery in the story.
The color palette looks filtered, which was a wise choice to visually illustrate how past memories don’t always embrace reality.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Like the lake in the wilderness, the movie is very slow-moving. The pace and tone change dramatically from Act 1 to Act 3. Some scenes could have definitely been cut to tighten up the telling. The wilderness story feels like a different movie from the home invasion one.
The ending is a bit clunky which left me with feelings of uncertainty about the entire movie’s experience and what it was really trying to say.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Kids will be bored. So will some adults.
Bloody violence with a gun and other weapons on animals and humans
We see a woman in her underwear.
Two of the characters have a lot of tattoos. We watch a man poke a needle in a girl’s arm to give her a tattoo.

THEMES:

FUNNY LINES:

INTERESTING LINES:

“There’s nothing more pure than the instinct to survive.” – Jacob Holbrook (Ben Mendelsohn)
“You must always protect your family.” – Jacob Holbrook (Ben Mendelsohn)