The King's Daughter (2022)

The King’s Daughter is the kind of old-fashioned, storybook fantasy that isn’t afraid to be sincere: candlelit Versailles grandeur, ocean-borne magic, and a moral fable about what immortality costs when you try to steal it. Pierce Brosnan brings a regal chill to Louis XIV, while Kaya Scodelario gives the film its beating heart as a young woman whose curiosity and compassion pull her into a world of courtly secrets and impossible choices. The movie’s pleasures are tactile and classical—lush sets, sweeping adventure beats, and a central mermaid myth that plays like a bedtime tale with sharper teeth than you expect in a PG family film. If you’re looking for gritty realism or irony, this may feel too earnest, but if you want a romantic, family-friendly fantasy with genuine wonder and a clear-eyed conscience, it’s an easy invitation to say yes.

The King’s Daughter is clearly aiming for a family-friendly fairy tale with Versailles pageantry, a moral about compassion, and a swashbuckly romance wrapped around a mermaid-and-immortality hook. The problem is the execution: the dialogue often lands with a thud, the pacing feels strangely flat for an “adventure,” and the CGI/fantasy elements look more TV-movie than big-screen magical, which makes the stakes hard to buy. Pierce Brosnan brings some gravitas and the period costumes can be pleasant to look at, but the writing doesn’t give the cast enough to make the emotions feel earned. If you’re expecting a lush, sweeping fantasy like a modern Disney-adjacent epic, you’ll likely be disappointed; if you can tolerate clunky storytelling for a clean, earnest, low-stakes fantasy, it may still pass as a casual family watch.