Title – The Marsh King’s Daughter (2023) 

Director – Neil Burger (The Illusionist) 

Cast – Daisy Ridley, Ben Mendelsohn, Garret Hedlund, Gil Birmingham, Brooklynn Prince

Plot – Now a grown woman, Helena (Ridley) struggles with her past and her present when her criminal father Jacob (Mendelsohn) escapes from prison where he was sentenced for kidnapping her mother.  

“Fear the past or face it”

Review by Eddie on 15/04/2024

Not that there’s any such thing as a certainty in life, all the stars were seemingly aligned to expect that director Neil Burger’s decently budgeted and talent stacked adaptation of Karen Dionne’s bestselling book would be one of 2023’s dramatic hits. 

Released unceremoniously in early November to avoid clashes with Taylor Swift’s cultural phenomenon The Eras Concert, a global box office haul of under $3 million dollars and some diabolical critical reviews and cold audience reception showcased that best laid plans/expectations are never guaranteed with The Marsh Kings Daughter a mediocre and mostly lifeless offering that never had a chance to flourish into something more. 

One of Hollywood’s most curiously stagnant directors who constantly dabbles in films ranging from instantly forgettable to strangely irrelevant despite brief moments of popularity, Burger continues to operate in a very specific wheelhouse built on the likes of The Illusionist, Limitless, Divergent and The Upside with Daughter a film much like those he has delivered in the past, full of potential but unable to come together in a meaningful way. 

Enlisting Daisy Ridley in the main role of Helena, a now grown woman who is haunted by her traumatic upbringing at the hands of Ben Mendelsohn’s criminal father figure Jacob, Burger is never able to get Daughter into an engaging flow from our early times with Helena (here played by The Florida Project’s breakout star Brooklyn Prince), Helena in the present day alongside Garret Hedlund as her caring husband Stephen or her battles with Jacob after he escapes from prison. 

Each element of the film should provide both emotional connection and potent material for a thrilling game of cat and mouse both figuratively and mentally but despite a pretty gloss that comes from such well-backed dramatic exercises, Daughter remains a cold and unengaging experience throughout, constantly frustrating us with its lack of heart and soul and its sad inability to give its cast a chance to shine. 

Struggling to find the right material post Star Wars, Daughter offers Ridley one of her most loaded screentime opportunities yet but despite her best attempts she never feels like a great fit for the role of Helena and with Mendelsohn’s charismatic bad guy routine starting to wear thin and Hedlund once more anchored to a tame supporting role that barely gets him to raise a sweat, Daughter’s talented ensemble can’t gift the film any type of respite from its lacking delivery. 

In multiple facets and angles Daughter might just have been a significant and memorable affair but in continuing on in director Neil Burger’s career pattern, the film is one that barely scrapes by on its way to an inevitable future where few can recall or can be bothered to ponder its existence. 

Final Say – 

A 2023 film that came and went with little fanfare, The Marsh Kings Daughter has the core of something special but lethargic delivery, a sleepwalking cast and a strange sense of disinterest halt this dramatic affair in its tracks. 

2 spreadsheets out of 5