Summary

The Marsh King’s Daughter, directed by Neil Burger, is a slow-burn drama that centers around childhood trauma and its lasting effects, despite skipping over important years in the protagonist’s life. Daisy Ridley delivers a subtle performance, conveying Helena’s pain and strength through her eyes, while Ben Mendelsohn exudes a quiet, menacing force. Although the film lacks depth in exploring Helena’s story and has a slow middle, it manages to maintain our interest and ramps up the tension, leaving us on the edge of our seats in the thrilling third act.

Neil Burger has directed a diverse slate of films — from The Illusionist and Limitless to Divergent and The Marsh King’s Daughter, Burger’s latest starring Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn. The latter is a slow-burn drama that centers childhood trauma and the ways it shapes someone’s entire life. The film can be an intense thriller, and while it’s elevated by strong performances, it avoids focusing too much on the critical intervening years following the daughter’s escape, and the dawdling pace prevents the narrative from fully being realized. While it’s to the detriment of the story and a disservice to the characters, The Marsh King’s Daughter, adapted by Elle Smith and Mark L. Smith from the novel by Karen Dionne, manages to maintain our interest until the very end.

Ten-year-old Helena (Brooklynn Prince) loves her father Jacob (Ben Mendelsohn), a hunter who’s dubbed the “marsh king” by the media. She wants to learn from him, and she listens to everything he has to tell her — be it about how to track animals or why she’s not allowed to keep a gun in the shed. Helena isn’t as close to her mother (Caren Pistorius), but when a man stops by their cabin one day asking for directions out of the forest, she and her mother manage to successfully escape from Jacob, who is revealed to have kidnapped Helena’s mother 12 years before. Jacob is caught and imprisoned for 20 years. As an adult, Helena (now played by Daisy Ridley) struggles with the weight of her past. Married with a daughter of her own, Helena must fight to protect her family from her father after Jacob escapes prison.

Ben Mendelsohn in The Marsh King’s Daughter

Despite discovering the truth, alongside the violence and paranoia at the center of Helena’s journey, The Marsh King’s Daughter underscores the nuance of such a lived experience, and the difficulty of extricating the love felt by a child in the wake of a father’s horrific deeds. It’s ultimately the story of a survivor, and it’s on display in the way Helena is constantly on edge, emotionally distant, and vigilant. The film explores, at least to some extent, Helena’s trauma and its effects on her life, the difficulty of adjusting to everyday life, and coming to terms with her father being the abusive, controlling kidnapper her mother knew.

Daisy Ridley’s performance is subtle. Her eyes dart at every noise, assess with every change, and hold back a wealth of pain and emotion that Helena doesn’t seem so sure how to begin grappling with. Ridley also displays Helena’s quiet strength throughout, fiercely defensive when the need calls for it. On the other hand, Ben Mendelsohn is quietly terrifying, exuding a threatening force that permeates the film and any interactions with Ridley’s character. Brooklynn Prince, Gil Birmingham, and Garrett Hedlund are also good in their limited supporting roles.

Gil Birmingham and Daisy Ridley in The Marsh King’s Daughter

What ultimately holds back The Marsh King’s Daughter is its inability to dive deeper into Helena’s story. The film skips over the years after Helena’s escape, fast-forwarding to her adult life. It creates a gap that is deeply felt, especially as we’re only given snapshots of Helena’s life following her escape through dialogue between her and Birmingham’s Clark. Their interactions are intriguing but needed more to flesh them out completely. The third act saves the film from some of its plodding pacing issues, leaving us with a thrilling confrontation between Ridley and Mendelsohn that leaves us on the edge of our seats in anticipation.

The Marsh King’s Daughter isn’t particularly memorable or special, but it manages to hold our interest throughout as it ramps up the tension. Even through a slow middle, Burger’s film has moments of intensity, and it isn’t hard to feel Helena’s paranoia as she’s forced to contend with her past as it actively affects her present. The performances elevate a story that could have gone deeper, but is fine for what it’s trying to be.

The Marsh King’s Daughter releases in theaters on November 3. The film is 108 minutes long and rated R for violence.