The King's Daughter

Fantastic-looking settings and costumes and a gorgeous cast can't overcome this fantasy/romance's predictable, listless storytelling.

“The King’s Daughter” is a pretty bauble of a movie. It’s a great-looking movie that is a mix of history, fantasy and romance, delivering a story that almost feels like it would have worked better as a Disney animated film than live action.

Pierce Brosnan plays Louis XIV, aka “the Sun King,” the longest-serving monarch in history who wants his reign to go on forever — not for himself, he insists, but “for all France.” His scientists have come up with a cockamamie plan to capture a mermaid, cut out its heart and somehow use a solar eclipse ceremony to infuse her magic energy and make him immortal.

Complicating all that, Louis has a daughter in secret — even to her — who is brought to court and lavished with his praise and attention. She befriends the mermaid, falls in love with the ship captain who caught her, and from there you can pretty much guess exactly how things will play out.

This film, directed by Sean McNamara (“The Miracle Season”) from a script by Barry Berman and Jams Schamus, is based on the book “The Moon and the Sun” by Vonda N. McIntyre, unread by me. They actually shot on location at the Palace of Versailles, with some additional pickups at scenic locations in Australia.

(Somehow in the film’s peculiar geography Versailles is right next to the sea, though my map shows it as more than a hundred miles away.)

Here’s something else curious you should know: this movie was shot in 2014, nearly eight years ago, with the primary investment coming from a Chinese company. I don’t usually comment on a film’s production as it’s generally immaterial to assessing its worth, but the gap between shooting and release must represent some kind of record.

It seems the project was shelved, but reportedly more money was found to finish the movie’s numerous CGI shots for the mermaid and othe special effects.

Kaya Scodelario plays Marie-Josephe D'Alember, the titular daughter. A strong-willed free spirit and talented musician and composer, she was raised in a remote seaside convent — Rachel Griffiths turns up for a minute as the stern abbess — unaware that she is actually Louis’ illegitimate daughter. (The real Louis XIV had many affairs and offspring, acknowledged and not.)

She is summoned to Versailles and soon made the king’s chief composer, playing music for him to awaken to every morning. Gossip soon starts forming among the status-obsessed court about her connection to Louis, with the supposition he’s taking on another lover.

Marie-Joseph is more attuned to Yves De La Croix, the smoldering captain played by Benjamin Walker. Condemned for his father’s crimes, he’s acting at the behest of the king and his sneering scientist, Dr. Labarthe (Pablo Schreiber).

Everyone in the cast looks extravagantly beautiful in a very made-up way. Brosnan wears a long wig of dark ringlets that match Scodelario’s own (real?) hair and ostentatious outfits, favoring royal blue.

Most of the men wear more makeup than the women; Schreiber practically looks like he’s been cast out of plastic. Ditto for Ben Lloyd-Hughes, who plays a rich young fop Louis intends to marry Marie-Joseph off to.

The plain exception is William Hurt as Père La Chaise, an archbishop and the king’s spiritual advisor and seemingly sole friend. They have a strange but workable relationship, with the priest trying to steer the king toward the light but resigned to the fact that ego and ambition will usually outpace his own efforts. Every morning as the music plays, the king confesses who he dallied with the night before — his memory is sometimes fuzzy — and receives rote absolution.

The mermaid is rendered entirely in CGI, an amorphous figure of fins and hair who croons sadly in her imprisonment in the massive waterworks beneath the castle. Marie-Joseph is drawn to her singing and finds herself able to communicate with her after a fashion, and also discovers some pretty fantastic healing powers the she-fish has.

“The King’s Daughter” is a wholesome, PG-rated affair with nary any blood, swearing or lovey-dovey that goes beyond a chaste kiss or two. Really, this is more of a children’s picture despite the historical backdrop and fantastic costumes/sets of a historical drama.

Alas, despite the high production values the storytelling is listless and predictable, less a magical fable than cliche.