The Marsh King's Daughter

In mild thriller "The Marsh King's Daughter" Ben Mendelsohn's arrested after holding Caren Pistorius captive in the US wilds, where she had Brooklyn Prince who she & Mendelsohn raised for 12 yrs. Years later Prince (now Daisy Ridley) has a child of her own (via hubbie Garrett Hedlund) who Mendelsohn comes for (or does he?) on escaping prison. Director Neil Burger styles it like "Where The Crawdads Sing" / "Lou" but it's lower quality, thanks mainly to the co-writing duo of debutant Elle Smith & "The Covenant" co-writer Mark L Smith whose script is implausible, hole-filled & short-cutting. Gil Birmingham lends decent support, but this one is only just passable.

I was quite lucky I didn't read the IMDb synopsis for 'The Marsh King's Daughter' before seeing it, because it would've completely ruined the film's opening - and the opening is the strongest thing this film has going for it.

From there the film falls into "perfectly fine" land. Everything is passable and it's a mildly entertaining way to pass 110 minutes. But there's nothing daring or original or memorable here sadly.

The film also relies heavily on characters making nonsensical decisions that only make sense as a method to drive the plot forward. You either get used to that in this film or you're unlikely to have a good time.

As I mentioned, if you go in with a positive attitude and you're not looking for perfection you might just have a reasonably good time with this film. Even if you do however, I doubt you'll think about it again a week after seeing it. 6/10.

3 out of 5 stars.

The Marsh Kings Daughter is a fair psychological thriller film that has a good story. The script and direction is dull with a plain direction and flat characters.

The acting was okay with its cast ensemble. Daisy Ridley did her best with what was given. The characters were thinly written. It does have some thrills with Daisy trying to protect her family. And searching for her father which leads to a thrilling climax in the forest. The film lacks itself from being memorable or any different. It could have been better with a stronger script and sharp direction. Overall it was an okay film.

The movie will be well enjoyed by those who have not read the book by the same name as the story and characters remainn a mystery for them and thus one can keep up with the pace no matter how slow or fast the story goes. The people who have read the book on the other hand may find it off or slow to the pace they remember reading it.

With regards to the story and acting, the actors have well adapted to the script and do justice to the script that has been given to them.

The script itself has been well adapted to the current time and is adapted to suite the timeline. The only issue one faces is that the story itself needs adapting to suite to movie watcher's taste and while it does justice to the book and it's story, it doesn't add anything new of its own which might have become it's X factor. Thus, overall, it's a watchable movie, but not something you will remember for long or will go back to watch again.

I don't like to be that person who says the book was better, but in this case I couldn't enjoy the film because I had read the book. The film felt rushed and it lacked deepness: the story, the characters and the relations between them lacked deepness. Everything happened really fast and what we got to see from the main character's childhood wasn't enough. Since it lacked deepness, some moments seemed like they made no sense.

My boyfriend hadn't read the book, but he went to see the film with me and he also felt like it was rushed and that they just tried to summarize a complex story with complex characters.

It's a very good story though and it will keep you entertained, specially if you know nothing about it. Also the acting isn't bad at all. I give it a 6 based on the film itself, ignoring the existence of the book.

Anyway, I hope you get to enjoy it.