Beautiful, great spectacle.
This is what “The Lady and the Dragon” has in store, a new film in which Millie Bobby Brown plays the main role, released this Friday March 8 on Netflix.
And it is perhaps no coincidence that its release coincides with International Women's Day.
This chivalrous epic in “girl power” mode is a feel-good film.
You don't need to be a fan of fantasy epics to appreciate this story straight out of a storybook, revisited with a post-Metoo twist.
This breathtaking film with feminist messages takes us in from the first, sublime images.
In a land with an austere and frigid climate, a king tries to find a way to survive for his family and his people, ravaged by poverty.
Then a letter arrives from the rich rival kingdom of Aurea.
The queen of this distant country requests that the king's eldest daughter, Elodie, marry her son, Prince Henry.
For the sovereign, this would mean the end of poverty for his people.
Elodie, proud to contribute to the salvation of her kingdom, accepts the proposal.
The young woman and her family arrive in Aurea for this promising wedding, dazzled by the luxury and splendor of the castle.
But what Elodie doesn't know is that this union is a trap.
And that by giving her hand to Henry, she becomes the umpteenth princess victim of a pact made years earlier between the sovereigns of Aurea and a dragon thirsty for vengeance.
But there is no question for the courageous young girl to accept her sad fate.
She transforms into a warrior, Lara Croft style, and will try by all means to escape, change the course of her destiny and avenge the dozens of young princesses, innocent victims, like her, of this evil family.
We can't help but see it as an allegory of domestic violence.
We are thrilled by these magical landscapes, the twisting action scenes and this terrifying dragon that looks like a hippogriff in Harry Potter.
Millie Bobby Brown, also co-producer, is impeccable in this role of indomitable resistance fighter.
The new darling of Hollywood, revealed by “Stranger Things” and “Enola Holmes”, impresses.
Opposite her, Robin Wright excels as a treacherous queen ready to do anything to ensure the survival of her kingdom.
A modern-day fairy tale, just the way we like them.
Editor's note:
4/5
“The Maiden and the Dragon”,
film by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, with Millie Bobby Brown, Robin Wright, Angela Bassett, Brooke Carter, Ray Winstone, and Shohreh Aghdashloo... (1h41).