If you ever wanted to see Rey from the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy in a movie with Director Krennic from Rogue One, feel free to celebrate! 2023’s The Marsh King’s Daughter unites those respective actors for the first time.

Jacob Holbrook (Ben Mendelsohn) abducts Beth (Caren Pistorius) and keeps her captive as she raises their daughter Helena (Brooklynn Prince). Eventually Jacob goes to prison when the truth emerges.

Years later, Jacob escapes and an adult Helena (Daisy Ridley) fears he will attempt to find her. Now with a daughter of her own (Joey Carson) to protect, Helena strives to survive and stay safe in the face of this threat.

With movies like 2014’s Divergent and 2021’s Voyagers, director Neil Burger entered Daughter with ample experience in the “Young Adult” domain. As one watches the first act of Daughter, one might expect a similar focus here.

This opening segment offers a feint of sorts, as it makes Jacob look like a devoted, doting father who contends with the anger and mental instability of his wife. The film feels like it wants to develop into something about burgeoning adolescent Helena’s maturation.

However, 15 minutes into the film, we get the twist described in the synopsis. Eventually more details about the backstory of what landed Beth and Helena in the middle of nowhere with the obsessive and controlling Jacob.

This becomes a good curveball, one that sets up a potentially compelling character journey. When Helena learns that she lived a lie, how will she react?

What will this do to her psychological development? How does a character cope with the realization that the man she idolized was actually a sociopath?

All these topics offer interesting threads, and maybe the 2017 novel on which the movie was based explores them well. As for the film itself… not so much.

What a long, slow trip we find! Where a better film would use its pacing to develop suspense, this one just seems stuck in neutral.

Let’s face it: we all know Daughter will eventually lead to a confrontation between Helena and Jacob. The question becomes what the movie does with the cinematic space it needs to fill until that occurs.

And the answer comes back: not much. While Daughter desperately attempts to generate tension, it simply feels sluggish and inert.

I will acknowledge that their inevitable confrontation occurs in a manner different than expected, mainly because it happens earlier in the tale than anticipated. The film also depicts their initial meeting in a less violent and theatrical manner than one would assume.

This acts as little more than a feint to briefly disrupt viewer expectations. Once the film approaches its ending, we wind up with exactly the sort of climax we figured we would find.

Again, the biggest issue stems from the blandness of the movie as it leads toward the aforementioned ending. The story plods on the way and leaves us disenchanted with its cheap stabs at tension.

Matters don’t improve when we reach the predictable events that follow the inevitable confrontation between Helena and Jacob. Again, the film can’t generate real sparks so we find ourselves stuck with a lackluster exploration of the narrative.

With those Star Wars alums and other professionals along for the ride, the actors do more than credible work. I can’t blame the movie’s failings on the cast.

No, this one falls at the feet of Burger, as the director simply doesn’t find a way to imbue this tale with much real drama. We wind up stuck with a flat attempt at a thriller that fails to ignite.

The Marsh King’s Daughter appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The visuals held up well.

Sharpness looked appropriate. Delineation remained satisfying, so the image seemed accurate and concise, with only a bit of softness during occasional interiors.

No issues with jaggies or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws also remained absent.

In terms of colors, the movie opted for yellow/amber and green/teal, and it displayed them in a fairly heavy manner. Within these choices, the tones seemed satisfactory.

Blacks were pretty dark and tight, and low-light shots displayed reasonable clarity, though I thought they could be a smidgen murky at times. Overall, the visuals appeared positive.

I wouldn’t anticipate fireworks from the audio for a character piece like Daughter, and its DTS-HD MA 5.1 track gave me the expected subdued affair. Music became the most prominent aspect of the soundfield, as the score used the five channels fairly well.

Effects had less to do. Ambience ruled the day, so not much more gave the track pop.

This seemed appropriate, though, as the flick didn’t come with obvious opportunities for sonic sizzle. Aspects of some action added a little zing, but those didn’t seem especially memorable.

Audio quality appeared fine. Music was full and rich, while effects came across with appropriate accuracy, even if they lacked much punch due to a lack of ambition.

Speech came across as distinctive and concise. Nothing here excelled but the soundtrack fit the material.

As we shift to extras, we open with an audio commentary from director Neil Burger. He delivers a running, screen-specific look at the source novel and its adaptation, story/characters, photography and design choices, sets and locations, cast and performances, deleted scenes, and connected domains.

Expect a fairly blah commentary, mainly because Burger often tends to simply narrate the movie. While we find a decent array of production-related notes, the track drags too much of the time.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we find a featurette called The Art of Survival. It runs 19 minutes, 31 seconds and brings notes from Burger, producer Teddy Schwarzmann, and actors Ben Mendelsohn, Daisy Ridley, Caren Pistorius and Brooklynn Prince.

“Art” examines story/characters/themes, cast and performances, sets and locations. Despite some of the usual happy talk, “Art” brings a decent mix of insights.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Daughter. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

Adapted from a successful novel, The Marsh King’s Daughter doesn’t leap to the big screen in a positive manner. A thriller with few thrills, the end result feels slow and monotonous. The Blu-ray brings largely positive picture and audio as well as a smattering of bonus features. Not much about this movie engages the viewer.