Mermaid Murder Fantasy The King’s Daughter Should’ve Remained a Cold Case
It’s not every day that a movie sits dormant for eight years after it was shot, deep in the crevasses of some distribution house’s files, wondering if it will screen or die. The films that do, well, their reputation tends to precede them, and for good reason: They make us curious. We can’t help but pay attention. It was with that attitude that I approached The King’s Daughter, and because of its long road to the screen, I wanted so deeply to like it. However, its haphazard story, mediocre visual effects, downright awful costuming and other cardinal sins made it hard to find anything redeeming about the movie, no matter how many years have passed.
The King’s Daughter tells the story of Louis XIV’s (Pierce Brosnan) efforts to become immortal, which he attempts to do by stealing the lifeforce of a beautiful mermaid (Fan Bingbing). Things become complicated for the French royal when his illegitimate daughter (Kaya Scodelario) discovers the creature and befriends her, while simultaneously falling in love with explorer Yves De La Croix (Benjamin Walker).
The film’s biggest issue—or, at least, the thing that made it fundamentally impossible to suspend my disbelief within a story that requires it—is that it insists on breaking period conventions in ways that don’t serve. It’s fun to shake it up, but the lazy and completely inaccurate costuming takes away a lot from the work as a whole. You might be wondering why that matters so much, because the aforementioned breaks in period conventions can be good and have worked in many cases. Changing up the costuming in certain ways can be one of those assets, but there’s no consistency in the way costumes were selected for this film. In fact, there’s barely any link to actual historical dress, which would give us some kind of concrete connection to a time period—and in turn, strengthen the fantastical elements. Instead, it makes us question the world the story exists in, and not in a good way. When you have a plot that involves a mermaid and immortality—or pretty much anything that includes sci-fi or fantasy elements—there needs to be something that anchors viewers in the world, no matter what era the story takes place in. There just isn’t any anchor in this movie, and the costuming would have been an easy way to keep it grounded.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
