The Marsh King's Daughter: reviews

What the critics say average 5.2 from 20 outlets

• 8.5 Film ThreatRyan Devir What I appreciated about this movie was how it captured trauma and selective memory. Read
• 7.0 EscribiendoCineEmiliano Basile The Marsh King’s Daughter is a tension-filled film that uses the genre’s own tools to tell its story. Although its exploration of the characters’ identity follows familiar and fairly literal psychological paths, it delivers an effective film about the survival instinct, whether against the hostile marshland or against the threatening figure of a dark father. Read
• 6.9 Paste MagazineTara Bennett While the first third establishes the premise with a lot of promise and a compelling backstory, the rest of the film can’t rise above perfunctory cat-and-mouse dynamics that lack urgency and emotional stakes. Read
• 6.3 The Washington PostPat Padua Yet despite a strong premise and a talented cast, director Neil Burger (“Divergent”), working from a script by Elle Smith and Mark L. Smith, doesn’t completely sell the concept until the film’s tense final act. Read
• 6.3 Movie NationRoger Moore The predictability of much of what we see unfold here isn’t an asset. “Marsh King’s Daughter” can feel perfunctory, lacking the interior life that a novel gives characters. But the settings, the striking cinematography, sharp, suspense-heightening editing of the action beats and the stars lead this Marsh King’s Daughter out of the swamp. Read
• 6.3 Roger EbertNell Minow Despite strong work from Ben Mendelsohn, Daisy Ridley, and Gil Birmingham, director Neil Burger’s adaptation is a medium-level thriller. Read
• 6.0 New York TimesRobert Daniels A game Ridley, along with a brief cameo by a soulful Gil Birmingham, provides the necessary stakes for Burger’s film not to idle in narrative mud. Read
• 6.0 Screen RantMae Abdulbaki The performances elevate a story that could have gone deeper, but is fine for what it’s trying to be. Read
• 5.0 IndiewireDavid Ehrlich Perhaps suffering from the same kind of identity crisis as its heroine, Burger’s soggy mishmash of an adaptation struggles to thread the needle between pulpy fun and a probing character study. Read
• 5.0 Slant MagazineRoss McIndoe Once the film turns into a paranoid home-invasion thriller, there’s no ambiguity left to the tale. Read
• 5.0 The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck The novel presumably filled in the blanks to build an engrossing tale, one that here comes across as a rote suspenser, complete with jump scares and a violent climax. The actors nearly elevate the proceedings to something greater. Read
• 5.0 We Got This CoveredFrancisca Tinoco 'The Marsh King's Daughter' is yet another addition to the forgotten library of inconsequential and underdeveloped action thrillers. Read
• 5.0 VarietyOwen Gleiberman The movie is being marketed as a “psychological” thriller, but psychology is what it doesn’t have. It’s more like “Cape Fear” reduced to a “Predator” sequel. Read
• 5.0 InfobaeBeatriz Martínez In its opening stretch the film takes shape as a dark fairy tale pulsing with danger and unease, but expectations gradually fade, perhaps because of Burger’s rather flat direction, which settles for a suspense thriller without many original ideas, lacking enough force or bite, in which its two leads shine above all else. Read
• 5.0 mundoCineCarlos Mera In the end, “The Marsh King’s Daughter” is a thriller full of interesting, very explorable ideas that, sadly, are not put to effective use. As a result the film goes unnoticed, wasting its potential and leaving the viewer feeling it could have offered much more. Read
• 4.0 Diario de MéxicoLuis Soriano However, the plot, despite being very promising and generating tension, turns out very tedious and sleepy in its execution. Read
• 4.0 ProcesoLuciano Campos Garza The film’s big problem is its lack of plausibility. The script takes too many liberties for us to believe that what happens there is actually possible. Read
• 3.0 Los Angeles TimesRobert Abele When we need the churning dread of an intimate tale of generational trauma, “The Marsh King’s Daughter” goes formulaic, and when we’re primed for exploitation sweats, it gets flabby. Read
• 3.0 TomatazosVerónica Sánchez Sadly, after a promising first act, Neil Burger’s latest slowly starts to sink into the mud until it inevitably drowns in routine, and without a cast able to rescue it, this thriller is surely destined to be forgotten in some streaming catalogue once its theatrical run is over. Read
• 1.6 ColliderChase Hutchinson While Ridley gives her all to a more thoughtful and nuanced performance, The Marsh King's Daughter remains a film on a directionless journey to nowhere. Even with the commitment of its lead, it just gets lost in the woods before falling flat on its face. Read