Historically, noble ladies get married to lords in order to strengthen existing alliances between their family’s domains. At best, they are able to broker peace, but at worst, they are hostages to the stronger family they married into. Damsel cleverly depicts a twisted version of this relationship through a reversed version of the fairytale, where instead of a wedding being the ultimate endgoal, it is the start of the princess’ misfortunes, placing Millie Bobby Brown into a fantastical survival stand-off against a dragon. It’s an intriguing idea, though the film mostly sticks to its PG-13 lane, leading to a fairly entertaining dark fantasy flick without delving deep into its horrors.

Damsel is definitely a vehicle for Millie Bobby Brown– all the scenes have the titular lady, and it’s great to see a different, more fantastical side to her acting. It’s great to see Netflix invest in the young stars that helped make them big. However, in focusing the film primarily on Elodia, plenty of the other roles are sidelined, which isn’t necessarily bad, but it feels like a waste of the talents of the rest of the cast, especially for Oscar nominated Angela Bassett.