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.