Wrapping production in the spring of 2014 the release of 'The King's Daughter' was delayed almost eight years due to distribution rights issues. The films then 22 year old star Kaya Scodelario is now 29 and has two kids. Kaya plays the titular King's daughter, the illegitimate offspring of France's 'Sun King' Louis XIV, played here by Pierce Brosnan sporting ridiculous long hair.
Ridiculous is a key word here, the plot concerns Louise's efforts to sacrifice a mermaid during a solar eclipse in order to achieve immortality. The king's daughters Marie-Josèphe, a musical prodigy raised in a convenient and only recently relocated to Versallies (where the movie was partially shot), is the only one who may be able to persuade him to save the poor creatures life.
The secret princess and the mermaid have a special connection you see, the latter can call out to the former with a music only the pure in heart can hear. Based on the 1997 novel 'The Moon and the Sun' by Vonda McIntyre (who died in 2019), this is an original fairytale with a real historical setting.
This movie is not at all afraid of going for the obvious, you know everything you need to know about everyone from the moment you first meet them. It's all so telegraphed, cliched and poorly written. Within moments of arriving at the palace having meet all of two people, the princess is already complaining about how she doesn't fit in here. She falls into a fountain so distracted is she by the beauty of the woman whose statute sits at its center, this woman of course turns out to have been her mother. When at her lowest point in the story she begins to light candles in a church and a hooky ballad starts to play, I laughed out loud. (It's just fun that William Hurt was cast as the priest.)
The film plays like a live action adaptation not of an animated Disney classic, but of a low rent direct to video imitation. Even with decidedly subpar effects this movie still cost $40 million to make, and so far has brought in just $1.7 million. Horribly reviewed with just 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film scores a 5.1 on IMDb's audience rating. I went in knowing this would be bad and thoroughly enjoyed it as such, for me it was a fun theater experience, even if I was the only one laughing. *1/2
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