The Marsh King's Daughter 4K 2023 2160p Dolby Vision

Helena lived twelve years in isolation under the supervision of her father, a tyrant and murderer known by the nickname Swamp King. When a relative is imprisoned, the heroine begins to live an ordinary life. Now she has a new family, which knows nothing about her past. After many years, the Swamp King escapes from prison, and Helena is forced to help the police catch the legendary criminal in order to protect her loved ones from danger.

The Marsh King's Daughter 4K Review
Helena (Brooklynn Prince) lives in the middle of the woods with her parents. The girl's favorite pastime is hunting with her dad (Ben Mendelsohn) and listening to his every word with rapt attention. Jacob, unlike his silent and aloof mother (Karen Pistorius), is Helena's best friend and example. When the man leaves home for a while, his partner has a chance to escape and save her daughter. Except that Helena doesn't understand anything: why leave her father and leave the house she loves? Already in the police station, in the circle of strangers and previously unknown technology, the girl is explained that Daddy is a known criminal who kidnapped a woman and kept in the woods against her will. Many years later, Helena (Daisy Ridley) is living with the man she loves, raising her daughter and hiding the truth about her childhood from everyone. The past comes knocking at the door when the police report that the Swamp King (so nicknamed for the tyrant father) has escaped from prison and can find his daughter.

The story begins in a swampy area. Helena avidly absorbs life lessons from her hunter father. The girl has no idea that there is a completely different life outside the forest thicket. The world unfolds around the imposing figure of a man: he teaches her how to hunt, tattoos her daughter's body and repeats the rules of survival. There are also notes of anxiety in the peaceful green landscapes: the mother, like a frozen statue, barely utters a couple of phrases. A little later, the viewer realizes that this is not indifference, but humility and despair. Contrary to the demonstration of warm relations between father and daughter, the authors make it clear that in front of us is not a utopia, but only an illusion of happiness. The veil is about to fall, the rose-colored glasses will be removed, reality will force Helena to face the truth. Surprisingly, but the suspense characteristic of a thriller is felt just in the first act of the picture - when, it would seem, the world of the protagonist has not yet been destroyed. The sun's glare breaks through the tree branches, and with it Jacob's dark motives.

If the action in nature can still cause a sense of unease (and this is, remember, only the first fifteen minutes of the movie), the story of the adult Helena loses the heat of tension. Daisy Ridley doesn't have much to play with, and Neil Berger barely manages to maintain the halo of mystery and the exhilarating feeling that just a little more will do the trick. When Helena returns to the cabin by the woods (not a spoiler, the heroine's decision is quite natural), the picture comes alive again. One gets the impression that the authors failed to convey the mood of the source material properly: it's quite possible that on paper, the line of the traumatized girl could excite and hold intrigue. Alas, most of the time on the screen unfolds a rather sluggish and slow story, which is not at all unnerving, but, it must be admitted, not annoying at all.

A key theme of the movie is childhood trauma and ghosts of the past. Helena is stuck in painful memories, as in a viscous mire. Daisy Ridley's character can't even go on a picnic in peace: nature reminds her of the mental wounds she once inflicted. The director emphasizes how memory can distort events, how easy it is to mistake wishful thinking for reality. Years later, the grown-up savage recalls her carefree childhood, in which there was room for fear and many questions. The cold mother now appears as a woman in a cage, and the custodial father as a real tyrant. At a tender age, it is easier to deny the obvious and to believe wholeheartedly that your parent is a loving protector, not a kidnapper.

"The Swamp King's Daughter" can hardly be called either a passable or outstanding thriller. The picture sits comfortably somewhere in the middle. Neil Berger combined the mesmerizing beauty of the forest terrain with the horrors of the crimes committed in them. The dissonance on the screen coincides with the contradictory feelings of the protagonist, for whom something light turns into darkness. Helena loses the feeling of home and the support inside - this is the price of the truth that gives freedom. It is not only the little girl who loses her foundation, but also the movie, whose potential exceeds its possibilities.