The biggest problem with a movie like The Marsh King’s Daughter is that you already know the twist going in. Jacob (Ben Mendehlson) is a man who lives off the grid in the Michigan upper peninsula wilderness with his young daughter, Helena (Brooklyn Prince), and her mother, Beth (Caren Pistorius). He teaches his young daughter how to hunt and live off the land and rewarding her with tattoos.
It seems like this is another one of those “Living off the Grid” movies like Captain Fantastic or Leave No Trace. But a man rides up on ATV saying he’s lost. Immediately, Beth grabs Helena and gets on the vehicle while Jacob shoots the man dead from a distance away. Helena doesn’t want to go which leads Beth to knocking her out. Helena awakes at a sheriff’s office station to a friendly deputy, Clark Berkkum (Gil Birmingham). It just so happens that Beth has been living a captive in the woods by Jacob for years. It’s like a bizarro version of Room where the child lives in an open world without other human contact. Helena always loved her father so she didn’t ever see him as evil. However, Helena does come upon a scene of Jacob and Beth arguing in the river which is later to be revealed as Beth trying to escape
Jacob is eventually captured in a sequence that seems somewhat laughable you really wish it was a dream sequence but it’s real. I guess Neil Burger was trying to go for the feel of a child who may not see the world and reality the way adults do. But flash forward 20 years and Helena (now played by Daisey Ridley) is living and working in suburbia at a regular desk job like all the other parents. She’s married to a husband, Stephen (Garrett Hedlund), and they have a daughter, Marigold (Joey Carson).
But Helena’s life unravels when she returns home to see that the police and FBI are there as Jacob has apparently escaped while being transferred because they always escape while being transferred. The movie is all over the place with scenes that don’t exactly connect and flow properly. This movie is based on a book of the same name by Karen Dionne. It’s just over 500 pages which means Dionne could tell a nice detailed story. And maybe deal with how a young child learns awful things about a parent and how it affects their life.
This seems are crumpled together. In fact, it feels like more was filmed but it was cut down to a run time of 108 minutes with credits. Even though Jacob is reported to have died in a car fire during his escape, Helena feels Jacob is stalking her. But there’s very little of this before Helena foolishly goes back to the wilderness home where she once lived. And you guessed it, Jacob is there.
There aren’t too many good scenes here. It turns out that Clark actually ended up marrying Beth but it caused some tension between him and Helena. Beth committed suicide years earlier from the trauma as the arrest of Jacob had him dubbed “The Marsh King.” And Helena has spent years hiding her past especially from Stephen. Ridley and Hedlund have no chemistry but there is a good scene where Ridley shows him all the tattoos on her body and what they meant.
It seems Ridley has been struggling since the Star Wars movies to break out. She deserved a better script. She tries so hard but she can’t break through the Lifetime thriller vibes that this movie ends up being. Birmingham is another actor who deserved a better role. Prince gives a good role. It’s just a shame she doesn’t have a bigger role.
For a movie with a title like this, it’s appropriate because it gets all bogged down. And finally I have to add a footnote. Just like Where the Crawdad Sings, this is another one of those movies where people live off the grid in the wilderness, yet they seem to have the best looks. I’m almost certain that young Helena and Beth wouldn’t have the the hair they have in this movie.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 