It’s easy to forget sometimes just how important one show can be to an actor’s career. And even if it’s an ensemble cast, it’s often just one role that catches the attention of its audience.

In this instance it was the role of Eleven in the Duffer Brother’s Stranger Things played by Millie Bobby Brown. With her success in the role the young British actress, now finds herself in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose projects that she can star in. And this is her latest choice playing a young woman who is thrown into a very bad situation – literally.

All is not well in the kingdom of Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone); there is growing poverty and his people are struggling. So it’s with a heavy heart that he accepts an offer of marriage for the hand of his daughter Elodie (Brown), from a distant wealthy family willing to offer bags of gold in return.

Although not best happy about it, Elodie understands the reasoning for it, and begrudgingly accepts the outcome.

After a long journey, Elodie and her family arrive at an opulent palace, which makes Elodie wonder if this isn’t such a bad idea after all.

But on her special day however, just after the vowels, the day takes an unexpected turn, as does Elodie, who soon finds herself fighting for her life.

You can see exactly why Brown would green light this project; it turns the notion of a helpless damsel in distress on its head, making her very much the hero. And the fact that she’s in pretty much every scene doesn’t do any harm either.

It also features a superbly designed dragon, which is unusually voiced by a woman (Shohreh Aghdashloo) – although that shouldn’t be the case - which keeps the strong feminine narrative going.

But then there are a number of holes in it – most notably the very dark cave where most of the film takes place; it’s just too darn dark and oppressive, and not very agreeable to watch.

And then there’s some painful acting and dialogue. The film’s director, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, hasn’t directed a feature since 2011’s Intruders starring Clive Owen, and it shows. The interaction with most of the cast is a carpenter’s dream, in being very wooden. And then you have Brown herself.

She appears to be the only British actor who can do a British accent and make it sound fake. Perhaps she has spent too much time in the US, and has simply forgotten how, but her accent here sounds almost like a parody.

Obviously dragons are in vogue once again, care of House of the Dragons, and Damsel is obviously trying to ride on the dragontail of its success, with this young teen friendly adventure, where no boobs appear on screen ever, not even Ray Winstone’s, who hasn’t been afraid to whip out his man boobs in the past.

Brown succeeds in creating a hybrid of Lara Croft and Xena princess warrior which sees her tear her bridal gown into something more practical - and presumably skimpy to appeal to the hornier portion of its young demographic, and her relationship with the dragon is interesting – although it could have been pushed further – but some pitiful acting and the main locale outstaying its welcome very early on, means that it’s difficult to care if this particular heroine is saved or not.

As far as Brown’s future is concerned, she may want to give it some more thought, especially with Stranger Things coming to an end, otherwise she may end up with no career worth saving.