The King's daughter

Despite all the sympathy we have for the actors Pierce Brosnan, Kaya Scodelario and William Hurt, we have to admit that the film The King's daughter by Sean McNamara turns out to be a total disaster as much in the direction of the actors, as in the script, but above all in the haphazard editing that makes this film a pale copy of the great adventure films (one thinks in particular of the recent Pirates of the Caribbean film saga). However, the book by Vonda N. McIntyre published in 1997, which won the famous Nebula award for the best novel that same year, perfectly combined historical romance and fantasy (the presence of a mermaid), could have given life to an ambitious film for the general public if it had been in the right hands, capable not only of transcending this novel but also of rediscovering all the charm of epic films. Despite the presence of Kaya Scodelario (Clash of the Titans (2010), The Maze Runner (204), Crawl (2019), Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)), The King's Daughter turns out to be a film sorely lacking in pace and whose special effects are not sufficiently worked to capture our attention.

The quest for immortality has always been at the center of many writings and films and continues to hold all our attention and even if it still remains a utopia nowadays we can only note that we live longer and longer and that scientific progress and the use of new technologies will have an important role in decades. As this film shows, many people with important positions or even political power over their country are listening to an opportunity to become eternal. In this case, Louis XIV (Pierce Brosnan) is the most powerful and influential monarch in France. While the state's coffers are drained by numerous wars, he has only one concern in mind: the future of his country and becoming eternal. He turns to his spiritual advisor, Father La Chaise (William Hurt), and the royal physician to help him obtain the key to immortality. Believing that a mermaid (Fan Bingbing) contains a force that guarantees eternal life, Louis XIV then commissions a young sea captain to travel the seas and capture the mystical creature. His orphaned daughter, Marie-Josèphe (Kaya Scodelario), who returns to court after many years in a convent, complicates his plans. As a rare solar eclipse approaches, Louis XIV will discover his daughter's true loyalty as he races against time to extract the life force of the mermaid.

The story at the center of the film should have given rise to a long film segmented into different periods and at the height of a Pirate of the Caribbean (we will find the actress Kaya Scodelario in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).  However, the lack of means and the scenes especially in the open sea reveals that the financial means were not sufficient to give rise to an adventure film with a hectic pace. Despite a budget estimated at more than forty million dollars, the result on the screen is not visible and one could almost wonder at what level the budget was distributed as we find ourselves here with a luxurious TV movie shot in France at the Palace of Versailles. In the same way, one comes to wonder what the actors Pierce Brosnan and William Hurt have come to do in such a bad film and whose performance here hardly honors them. We won't come back either on the slowness of some scenes and on the mediocre dialogues that could almost make this film look like a parody of Hollywood films made by a director overwhelmed by the events and unable to finish his film.  

The King's daughter was supposed to be released in the United States on April 10, 2015 before Paramount Studios decided to cancel the release of this film. It will take five years for this film to be bought by Arclight Films and distributed on January 21 in the United States in theaters and on video by Gravitas Ventures. The King's Daughter has a bad reputation and corresponds to the image of a failed film in which a few very rare successful scenes are found. One suspects that the main actors would have preferred to forget the existence of such a cinematographic failure. A last advice if you appreciate the actress Kaya Scodelario avoid this film and instead go see or rewatch Crawl and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City in which she is well directed and gives her characters a real psychological thickness.

The King's Daughter
Directed by Sean McNamara
Screenplay by Barry Berman, James Schamus
Based on The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre
Produced by James Pang Hong, Paul Currie, Wei Han, Sean McNamara, David Brookwell, Hong Pang, Evan Wang, Qingfeng Du
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Kaya Scodelario, Benjamin Walker, William Hurt, Rachel Griffiths, Fan Bingbing
Narrated by Julie Andrews
Cinematography : Conrad W. Hall
Edited by John Gilbert
Music by Joseph Metcalfe, John Coda, Grant Kirkhope
Production companies : Bliss Media, Brookwell McNamara Entertainment, Lightstream Pictures, Pandemonium Films, Firstep Productions, Exosphere Entertainment
Distributed by Gravitas Ventures (United States)
Release date : January 21, 2022 (United states)
Running time : 91 minutes

Seen on January 10, 2022 (press screener)

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