Damsel Review: When Revisionism Risks Regression

In an era where young minds are increasingly conscious of patriarchal norms and antiquated gender roles, Netflix’s “Damsel” arrives as a potent allegory – challenging the very foundations upon which classic fairy tales were constructed. This grim fantasy presents itself as a subversive revisionist tale, where the conventional ‘damsel in distress’ narrative is cast aside in favor of an empowered heroine taking her fate into her own capable hands.

Yet, does director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s film truly shatter the glass ceiling and liberate itself from the shackles of cliché? Or does it ultimately succumb to the very tropes it seeks to upend, settling for shallow bromides rather than substantive social commentary? Unsheathing my critical blade, I shall meticulously dissect this cinematic beast – appraising both its valiant strides towards progressivism and its faltering stumbles back into regressivism’s familiarity.

Sacrificial Rites and Dragon Flights

In the frigid realm of Lord Bayford, desperation has taken root – the wealthy kingdom of Aurea arrives bearing an enticing proposal to marry off Bayford’s daughter Elodie to their prince. Despite misgivings, Elodie obliges, hoping to rescue her people from squalor. She journeys to Aurea’s opulent castle, lured by the dashing Prince Henry and his regal mother Queen Isabelle.

Yet this fairy tale quickly curdles into a darkly twisted nightmare. Upon uttering her wedding vows, Elodie finds herself cruelly sacrificed – cast into the lair of a fearsome dragon as per an ancient pact struck by Aurea’s founders. Her glistening bridal gown now tattered rags, the resolute princess must lean on her wits to survive the inferno’s wrath and escape this treacherous cave system.

As Elodie delves deeper, she discovers the scorched remains of princesses before her – all offered up to sate the beast’s hunger across generations of ritualistic subjugation. Clues and whispers from these unlucky maidens’ phantoms guide her towards uncovering the truth behind Aurea’s draconic arrangement. The very kingdom that celebrated her nuptials now hunts her with murderous intent.

With tenacity becoming of a heroine, Elodie navigates the increasingly hazardous labyrinth – fashioning tools from her torn dress, following faint bioluminescent trails, and scrambling to outmaneuver the fiery, vengeful dragon’s pursuit through dimly lit caverns. Her path to liberation, however, may require confronting not just her bestial captor, but the oppressive patriarchal forces that enabling this barbaric tradition.

Sights Singed and Sumptuous

Under the assured hand of director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, “Damsel” proves a cinematic spectacle that dazzles the senses when permitted to truly flex its technical muscles. The Spanish filmmaker, whose previous forays into dark fantasy like “28 Weeks Later” hinted at his penchant for macabre grandeur, wields the tools of grand-scale fantasy with a deft understanding of visual opulence.

The lavish production design and costume work are worthy of the silver screen’s most prestigious period epics. The ornate majesty of Aurea’s royal castle and liturgical ceremonies ooze with resplendent regality that belies the insidious evil lurking beneath. Likewise, Elodie’s intricately embroidered wedding gown epitomizes the meticulous craftsmanship that has imbued even the most minute set and wardrobe elements with a lived-in authenticity.

It is within the dank, foreboding confines of the dragon’s cavernous lair, however, where Fresnadillo’s directorial talents shine most blisteringly. While certain exterior vistas of Aurea’s topography can feel hastily computer-rendered, the subterranean realm spiels of tangible, brilliantly lit alcoves and yawning abysses. The ingenious juxtaposition of bioluminescent glow worms’ ethereal blueness with the searing orange fury of the dragon’s flames produces a striking chromatic interplay.

The visual effects brilliance crescendos in bringing the titular, gargantuan beast herself to scaly, scorching vitality. Despite inevitably lacking the sheer enormity of a practical effect, the computer wizardry has imbued this razor-fanged titan with a startling dynamism – amplified further by the charismatic, smoke-tinged vocal performance of Shohreh Aghdashloo. Slithering with menacing gravitas, the dragon emerges as more than just a mere antagonistic obstacle, but a formidable, multi-layered force to be reckoned with.

Talents Torched and Tempered

At the fiery heart of “Damsel” beats the commitment of its ensemble cast, comprised of both rising talents and established luminaries striving to elevate this revisionist fairy tale beyond mere studio banality.

Anchoring the film through an impressive physical and emotional gauntlet is Millie Bobby Brown as the tenacious Princess Elodie. Having cut her teeth on meticulously layered characters in series like “Stranger Things,” Brown demonstrates a commanding grasp over Elodie’s transformative journey – effortlessly transitioning from prim nobility to soot-stained warrior. While her vocal delivery can occasionally lapse into overly melodramatic territory, the young actress mines profound reserves of grit and determination that render her heroine’s plight viscerally palpable.

Brown’s efforts are complemented by an eclectic supporting cast of British thespian royalty. Ray Winstone lends patriarchal warmth as Elodie’s loving father, while Angela Bassett radiates regal concern as her watchful stepmother. As the villainous puppet master orchestrating this medieval horror show, Robin Wright employs her icy star power to chilling effect – her deceptively benevolent Queen Isabelle masking bottomless depths of sociopathic malice.

Stealing every scene she appears in without ever physically gracing the frame is Shohreh Aghdashloo as the sinister, velvet-toned voice of the dragon itself. Aghdashloo’s theatrical delivery infuses this primordial titan with a wicked, taunting gravitas that elevates it from mere CGI spectacle to a multi-faceted emotional antagonist. Her venomous words sear as intensely as the dragon’s flames themselves.

Though some performances can veer towards campy hysterics at times, the core ensemble remains committed to imbuing even the most archetypal characters with a grounded, lived-in authenticity that prevents “Damsel” from devolving into pure fantasy schlock. These talents, scorched by the crucible of their ordeal, forge an entertaining character piece from within the blockbuster bombast.

Patriarchy’s Pyre Stoked, Then Smothered

From its brazenly forthright title to its opening salvo challenging conventional chivalric tropes, “Damsel” decisively plants its battle flag in the increasingly fertile soil of feminist fantasy revision. This overt clarion call signals the film’s narrative ambitions – to upend the regressive “women as perpetual victims” paradigm woven into centuries of classic fables and usher in a new era of emboldened heroines dictating their own destiny.

The central figure spearheading this reclamation is, of course, Millie Bobby Brown’s Elodie. Her arc follows the quintessential hero’s journey from naïve ingénue blindly trusting in the establishment’s empty promises to a self-actualized, almost feral force of feminine determination and grit. Shedding her ornate bridal gown – quite literally stripping away the decorative patriarchal trappings imposed upon her – Elodie embraces an almost primordial state of being by journey’s end.

Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo seems to delight in subverting the male gaze’s lascivious objectification so prevalent in fantasy’s visual language. While a lesser film might have indulged in leering fetishization, the visual metaphor of Elodie’s tattered dress is instead wielded to symbolize her character’s escalating autonomy and self-ownership. She becomes divine feminine fury incarnate.

Yet for all its boldly progressive overtones, “Damsel” ultimately proves only a half-measure in its feminist posturing. The script routinely defaults to regressive clichés – making Prince Henry an ineffectual, emasculated archetype and bestowing the true villainy upon the orchestrating matriarch Queen Isabelle. This patriarchal subversiveness winds up subverted in itself, with the film doubling back on the same tired tropes of misogynistic conflict between “good” and “bad” women.

More intriguing are the allegorical threads of colonialism woven into Elodie’s plight. As the indigenous dragon herself elucidates through Shohreh Aghdashloo’s smoky vocal performance, she and the primordial isle of Aurea itself are the story’s true subjugated victims. The dragonslaying knights of yore merely set the stage for the establishment of Aurea’s new imperialist order by human settlers – a dominion perpetuated through the systemic oppression of the island and its native apex predator.

The indigenous dragon, then, rages as the furious, righteous spirit of nature itself against the plunderers and defilers of her ancestral homeland. Whereas Elodie fights to liberate herself from the bounds of patriarchal tyranny, the dragon’s own struggle attains a more globally resonant environmental/anti-colonial dimension sadly unexplored beyond mere subtext.

Laudable in its thematic ambitions yet only partially successful in achieving them, “Damsel” represents a step in the right direction for a genre gradually outgrowing its most antiquated, oppressive roots. This hybrid of misfire and bullseye scorches new trails while leaving others still satisfyingly smoldering for the next generation of mythmakers to follow.

Embers of Evolution

While the lurid spectacle of Damsel’s fiery conflicts may initially enthrall, the smoke eventually clears to reveal a film struggling to fully emerge from the ashes of its own ambition. For all its boldly revisionist premise centered on dismantling the prototypical “damsel in distress” myth, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s dark fantasy too often defaults to the very regressive tropes it purports to subvert.

Commendable sparks of feminist empowerment and allegorical anti-colonialism ignite sporadically, only to be smothered by clumsy character arcs and thematic detours into well-trodden territory. Compared to genre contemporaries like the ruthlessly efficient “The Princess” which replicated this formula with more precision, Damsel proves a somewhat scattered mis-fire of uneven execution.

And yet, one cannot deny the glimmers of meaningful evolution peeking through the haze. An admirable central performance from Millie Bobby Brown anchors the adventure, while the lush production design and inventive folklore recontextualization crackle with tantalizing flashes of inspiration. For all its flaws, Damsel remains a smoke signal of change amidst the stagnant smolder of fantasy’s archaic patriarchy.

From these embers shall surely rise bolder revisionist fires – infernos that will not be so easily extinguished by the winds of complacency. Damsel may only be a stepping stone towards grander, more subversive conflagrations to come.  But like the girl who walked through fire, its mere existence has sparked an overdue evolution that shall burn ever brighter on the genre’s horizon.

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