The King’s Daughter
Mermaid: The new anti-aging regimen.
Cast of Characters:
King Louis XIV – Pierce Brosnan
Marie-Josephe – Kaya Scodelario
Yves De La Croix – Benjamin Walker
Dr. Labarthe – Pablo Schreiber
Duke Jean-Michael Lintillac – Ben Lloyd-Hughes
Abbess – Rachel Griffiths
The Narrator – Julie Andrews
The Mermaid – Fan Bingbing
Pere La Chaise – William Hurt
Director – Sean McNamara
Writer – Barry Berman & James Schamus
Based on the novel The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre
Producer – James Pang Hong, Paul Currie, Wei Han, Sean McNamara, David Brookwell, Hong Pang, Evan Wang & Qingfeng Du
Distributor – Gravitas Ventures
Rated PG for some violence, suggestive material and thematic elements.
The Rundown: Following a failed assassination attempt, King Louis XIV (Pierce Brosnan) is determined to find the key to immortality. With the help of his top scientist Dr. Labarthe (Pablo Schrieber), Louis captures a mermaid (Fan Bingbing) who is believed to possess said immortality, which is to be gained by way of her sacrifice during the upcoming eclipse. Despite pushback from his closest religious advisor Pere La Chaise (William Hurt), Louis pushes through with the plan. However, when the king’s long-lost, illegitimate daughter Marie-Josephe (Kaya Scodelario) arrives on the scene, a potential wrinkle in the plan arises after she begins to form a bond with the mermaid.
Pre-Release Buzz: Much of the talk surrounding The King’s Daughter has focused on two things. First, the novel on which it is based on, written by the late Vonda N. McIntyre, is known for winning the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1997, beating out a little fantasy tale from George R. R. Martin named A Game of Thrones. Second, and easily the most talked about, is that this film finished shooting all the way back in 2014.
So what happened?
Well, talks of a film adaptation actually began in 1999, with names like Natalie Portman, Daniel Radcliffe and Jim Henson Pictures being attached at various stages of the pre-production process. However, it wasn’t until 2013 that Focus Features would finally get the ball rolling on the project, bringing on Pierce Brosnan, Kaya Scodelario and Academy Award winner William Hurt to star and Soul Surfer director Sean McNamara to direct. Eventually, Paramount Pictures hopped on board as the film’s distributor mid-production, and set a release date for spring 2015. But then, all of a sudden, just a few weeks shy of its release, Paramount pulled the plug, claiming that more time was needed to finish the effects work. Over time, as the finished product sat on Paramount’s shelf collecting dust, the studio would eventually sell the distribution rights to Arclight Films. Arclight, however, would in turn sell it to Gravitas Ventures, the film’s final destination.
I get that delays and pushed-back release dates have been no surprise whatsoever during that past two years given the COVID pandemic, but when your film has been completed for almost a decade, that’s one crutch you can’t lean on. I mean, there’s a January release that a studio has little to no faith in, and then there’s a January release that every studio has little to no faith in.
But here The King’s Daughter finally is, at long last… at literally long, long, loooong last. Is it worth the wait and able to live up to the acclaim of its award-winning source material, or was Paramount on to something in how they couldn’t have hot potatoed the film over to the next unlucky distributor fast enough?
The Good: The King’s Daughter certainly shows its age in how much it clearly looks like a product from the young adult fiction craze that was big between 2010-2015. All is not entirely lost here, though, as the production’s efforts are most evident in the set design. Between the elaborate practical set pieces and access to the actual Palace of Versailles, Sean McNamara spares no expense in showcasing a lavish and lush environment.
The cast also acquits themselves admirably, most notably Pierce Brosnan and Kaya Scodelario as the titular king and daughter, respectively. Where the script leaves much to be desired, Brosnan and Scodelario pick up the slack and give the film a bit of emotional spark during a few of their tense back-and-forths. Scodelario, in particular, gives a winning performance as the feisty Marie-Josephe, who has no trouble whatsoever in standing up to her royal father when his true intentions regarding the mermaid are revealed. Both William Hurt and Pablo Schreiber also give solid supporting work as Louis’s religious advisor and sniveling scientist, respectively. While the “faith vs. science” angle between them should’ve been explored further to provide the story with a much-needed complicated moral conflict, the exchanges by the Oscar-winning Hurt and Schreiber are nevertheless engaging thanks to what they bring to their roles.
The Bad: While the film isn’t without some impressive production detail, the film is ultimately held back from reaching its potential as a fun, whimsical fantasy adventure by an underdeveloped script that’s content to throwaway plot threads faster than they’re introduced. I can’t speak for the film’s source material, having not read the novel; however, I’m still aware that changes and additions have been adapted for the film version, the biggest ones being changing Marie-Josephe from being Louis’s niece to his secret daughter, and then also switching Yves from being Marie-Josephe’s brother to her love interest.
‘Cause what’s a young adult film made right in the thick of that genre’s heyday without a love triangle, right?
To be fair, changes and additions to a film adaptation aren’t inherently detrimental to the film if the film can incorporate them effectively. In the original Dracula novel, there is no romantic angle between the titular villain and Mina Harker; in fact, Mina is quite repulsed by him. But Francis Ford Coppola managed to make that section of artistic license work for his film. The problem with the changes made here is that they are so poorly developed they end up adding absolutely nothing of worth to either the story or its characters. Writers Barry Berman and James Schamus move through each plot development with full-speed ahead impatience, devoting no time or care in fleshing-out any of the characters’ relationships, actions or the motivations behind said actions. This is particularly noticeable with the film’s aforementioned obligatory love triangle between Marie-Josephe, the swashbuckling Yves and the arrogant Duke Lintillac, which is introduced, peaks at barely touched upon, and then is completely abandoned by the third-act.
Meaning, yes, even Twilight is a better love story.
The film’s most evident flaw, though, is Sean McNamara, who is clearly out of his element here. Of course, I can’t say I was expecting Peter Jackson-level fantasy epic work from the director of 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, Bratz and Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite!, but he has done solid work before. However, such prior solid work would be films like Soul Surfer and The Miracle Season, meaning he’s at his best delivering smaller-scale, workmanlike-structured vehicles that are primarily driven by their inspirational premises and strong performances. Granted, there’s plenty of blame to be shared here, as Berman and Schamus don’t give much to direct off the page, but McNamara’s efforts show he doesn’t really have a grasp on how to establish that sense of wonder and whimsy needed to propel a captivating fantasy tale. Instead, he seems to have this simplistic idea that pace, tone and narrative coherence can be completely shelved so long as you shoot practically every other scene in overly-dramatic slow-motion – you know, ’cause it looks cool and, ultimately, shooting at a higher frame rate is what really makes epics so enchanting and adventurous anyway. Sure, the locations are gorgeous (I mean, Versailles does kinda do the work for you) and the set design is first-rate, but there’s no pulse to this adventure.
The Ugly: For a film that had the plug pulled on its release so it could, allegedly, get the effects work right, the end result of said effects work is – well, kinda not good. Did I need to be wowed by Industrial Light & Magic? Definitely not. I don’t ask for much, but I do, however, ask for visual effects that are a cut above CGI that’s at best very noticeably cartoonish motion-capture work of Fan Bingbing’s mermaid and at worst green screened background shots that might as well have just been the green screen itself.
This is made all the more disappointing in that, as already stated, the practical set designs are really good and do a fine enough job in capturing the fantastical vibe the film is trying to achieve, which makes you wonder why they didn’t lean more in that direction instead of settling on such dodgy visuals. Even the film’s dazzlingly big, colorful money shot of Atlantis, which conceptually does look intriguing, is hindered from being a truly big “wow” moment due to the muddled underwater photography.
Seriously, you had roughly seven years to get this right, and this is what you produce?
Consensus: The King’s Daughter contains solid performances and glimpses of the much better fairy tale adventure it could’ve been, but overall serves as another unfortunate reminder that it’s never a good sign if your film’s long and winding backstory is more fascinating than the film itself.
Silver Screen Fanatic’s Verdict: I give The King’s Daughter a C- (★★).
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