[ad_1]
In director Neil Burger’s harrowing but fine thriller, “The Swamp King’s Daughter,” adapted from Karen Dionne’s novel of the same name, a young Helena (Brooklynn Prince) discovers that her fairy tale is actually a nightmare. She lives in a cabin in the woods with her stern mother, Beth (Caren Pistorius), and her hunting father, Jacob (Ben Mendelsohn). Jacob often marks Beth’s white skin with indigenous-inspired tattoos and teaches her how to track and hunt.
However, when a lost homeless man on a four-wheeler comes looking for directions, Beth flees with Helena in the vehicle to the police, leading to Jacob’s arrest. Unbeknownst to young Helena, twelve years earlier, her supposedly loving father kidnapped Beth so that she could be his wife.
As an adult, Helena (Daisy Ridley) shares a daughter with her husband, Stephen (Garrett Hedlund). But Stephen has no idea about Helena’s past. That changes when Jacob escapes from prison. Helena chooses to hunt down Jacob before he steals her daughter (Joey Carson).
This is a film superficially about trauma. Instead of exploring the emotional and psychological complexities of Helena’s devastation, potentially mature subjects, Burger hastily introduces thriller tropes that don’t fit well into a character study framework.
While Mendelsohn is often adept at portraying villains, his threat-generating potential is restricted by a one-note script. The putrid tones of the yellow-green lighting, intended to signify leaps into the past, also reduce suspense. Still, a play by Ridley, along with a brief cameo from a soulful Gil Birmingham, provides the stakes so that Burger’s film doesn’t sit idly in the narrative mud.
The swamp king’s daughter
Rated R for violence. Duration: 1 hour 48 minutes. On cinemas.