'Someone's Daughter' Review: A Frustratingly Underwhelming Thriller - Fantasia 2026
- Jul 22
- 3 min read
By Becca Johnson - July 22, 2026
Directed by Wiebke von Carolsfeld (Marion Bridge) and starring Pascale Bussières (August 32nd on Earth) and Francois Arnaud (Twinless), Someone’s Daughter brings a blend of crime drama and survival thriller to Fantasia Festival audiences. Bussières plays a fifty something criminal defence lawyer Sam, who is kidnapped and abandoned on a remote island with Paul (Arnaud), a former client she successfully defended a decade earlier when he was accused of rape. As the pair struggle to survive the brutal backcountry, an uneasy bond forms, yet Paul’s behaviour turns increasingly toxic.
Although the premise sounds initially thrilling, Someone’s Daughter is unfortunately bogged down by dull conversations, a lack of thematic exploration and predictable ending, despite the cast and location amplifying the experience as much as possible.
The premise of Someone's Daughter sounds as though it should offer plenty of intriguing discourse. Putting a lawyer together with a former client she once defended, particularly under circumstances that could force them to confront questions of guilt and innocence, seems like a recipe for a compelling cat-and-mouse dynamic. There is obvious potential for tense conversations about whether he actually committed the crime, the morality of the defence she provided and the extent to which she truly believes in his innocence. Unfortunately, the film never really engages with any of that. Instead, much of its 90-minute runtime is spent watching the characters wade through the woods, discussing which path to take and how best to survive, while the potentially fascinating circumstances that initially brought them together are left largely unexplored. What could have been a tense psychological drama becomes a severely underwhelming experience, wasting almost all of the intrigue promised by its premise.
Even the film's survivalist elements fail to deliver much in the way of intensity. The worst that happens to its characters for much of the journey is developing blisters and getting lost, creating a real lack of peril as they struggle through the wilderness. There are moments where it is easy to sympathise with them, particularly as they run out of food and water, make little progress and struggle to find a way out, but this never develops into anything particularly frightening that films of a similar survivalist ilk normally opt for. It just falls a little flat. The premise also hints at dangerous behaviour from Paul that could make the journey even more treacherous, but these moments arrive too little and too late. His behaviour throughout the journey is too subdued and unintriguing to generate much fear for either Sam or the audience, and by the time it finally crescendos into something genuinely threatening, the impact has already been lost. It is predictable, underdeveloped and ultimately far too late to inject the film with the tension it so desperately needs.
The film's saving grace is undoubtedly its performances, with Arnaud and Bussières doing everything they can to elevate the material. Neither is given a particularly substantial amount to work with in terms of emotional depth or character development, but both actors deliver whatever the script does offer to a high standard. They also work well together, establishing a compelling chemistry and a dysfunctional bond that gives the film some of the emotional tension it otherwise struggles to generate. There is a sense of history between them that occasionally hints at a more interesting film lurking beneath the surface, even if the screenplay rarely digs deep enough to explore it. Genre fans will also be pleased to see a fun supporting performance from Peter Outerbridge (Saw VI), who brings some welcome energy to the film. The forest setting is another element that helps Someone's Daughter remain as intriguing as it can be. Its vastness makes the characters feel isolated and insignificant, while the dense woodland creates an unavoidable sense of claustrophobia, making it difficult to know what might be lurking beyond the frame or where exactly the characters are heading. It gives the film a striking backdrop and at least provides something tangible to latch onto, even when the narrative itself struggles to generate momentum.
Someone's Daughter is a frustratingly underwhelming thriller that squanders an intriguing premise and fails to generate much tension from either its psychological or survivalist elements. The performances and forest setting provide some much-needed intrigue, and the third act does finally deliver a few thrills, but by that point the film has spent too long wandering without purpose. Ultimately, the journey simply isn't worth the destination.
'Someone's Daughter' premiered at Fantasia Film Festival 2026 on July 21, 2026.
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