The Beguiled (2017) Review!!!

Synopsis – The unexpected arrival of a wounded Union soldier at a girls’ school in Virginia during the American Civil War leads to jealousy and betrayal.

My Take – Personally I believe, Sofia Coppola is one of, if not, the best female filmmaker working today. Daughter to the legendary Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather), over her directing career, Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides) has won quite a lot of praise, arguably the biggest of which came this year in Cannes where she was announced the best director for this very film, and is only the 2nd woman in Cannes history to win in that category. Based on the Thomas Cullinan novel that was made into a 1971 film by director Don Siegel and starred Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Paige, the trailer of this remake tickled my interest, with its dark, menacing atmosphere and sumptuous colonial backdrop, and plus the excitement locating connected themes and introduce our self to chock full of new form of memorable female characters, I was thrilled to see what a contemporary retelling of the story would offer, especially with the cast she assembled. Having seen the original just for the sake of comparison (plus it has Clint Eastwood, so why shouldn’t I?), all I can is I am surprised about why would anyone would even think of remaking it, I’m even more surprised that it is done by Ms. Coppola, and I’m most surprised its gotten favorable reviews and any positive attention whatsoever. Yes, to be clear the film was quite a disappointment! It is clearly not director Sofia Coppola‘s best work, let alone winning the best director’s award! Aimed to be a crowd-pleaser, the premise has so much possibility for thrilling and intense drama, plus with a stellar cast, superb cinematography and magnificent American gothic period setting at its door, the remake has an uncompromisingly beautiful form. Yet, in terms of substance, on the other hand, its characterization and narrative interpretation are quite underwhelming. Despite a relatively engaging central portion where the drama works, I was left much underwhelmed at the emptiness of the film in a whole.

Set against the backdrop of the brutally divisive American Civil War in 1864, the story follows Miss Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman), daughter of a former plantation owner, who as a headmistress runs Farnsworth Seminary for Girls in Virginia, a Southern girls’ boarding school, with the help of her assistant, Edwina (Kirsten Dunst). The slave servants have fled and the Civil War rages, but the school stays open for a handful of orphaned girls, like Alicia (Elle Fanning), Amy (Oona Laurence), Jane (Angourie Rice), Marie (Addison Riecke), and Emily (Emma Howard). Living a secluded life away from the war, things change when Amy is out in the woods collecting mushrooms for dinner, comes across a wounded Union mercenary Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell), who begs her for help. She helps him limp to the school where Miss Martha agrees out of Christian kindness to provide shelter from the Confederates. He is the enemy, but being good Samaritans the women must treat his badly wounded leg and let him convalesce before turning him over. With his magnetism John manages to make excuses for keeping him longer, and uses his seduction skills to drives all the women in the house to dress up for him, flirt, charm, and allure him, especially with the three eldest vying to sleep with him. However, when caught out for his duplicity, the sweet angels of charity exact their revenge. The original 1971 film was an interesting claustrophobic Gothic thriller set against the backdrop of the brutally divisive American Civil War. The original film initially juxtaposes the caring females who rescue the dying soldier and nurse him back to health (despite him being the enemy), against the typically male scheming, conniving (and ultimately violent) persona of the soldier who sets about seducing his way to domination. The film then subverts the narrative with the manipulative behavior of the jealous women and their ultimate act of revenge brought about by his own arrogant assumptions of male superiority. Hardly any of this is present in this remake. Furthermore, the sexual tensions of the original film with its disturbing take on incest, predatory underage sex and the destructive jealousy between the principal and the unmarried teacher which eventually leads to the wounded soldier’s demise was almost completely absent from the Coppola film. In addition, the new film also removed the black slave character and in so doing a whole subtext concerning white male exploitation of black women and overall black subjugation by both the Confederate and Union armies was lost. Some reviewers/critics are lauding the film as a political 21st-century feminist masterpiece, which is odd because I never got the impression that the novel or the ’71 film were pro or anti-feminist, and to be frank, I didn’t get the impression that Coppola’s retelling was either.

This film slightly bends the narrative toward the perspective of the women in the house, but the dynamics between them and the male infiltrator lead to the same bubbling of chaos that ends in a topsy-turvy denouement that is the epitome of Southern Gothic if it’s anything at all. With a story rich in narrative potential, you might expect a delicious thriller melodrama with characters of depth, complexity and nuance. But instead we find a flat narrative with two-dimensional caricatures devoid of emotional expression. Apart from McBurney’s angry outburst at having been thwarted by a mere handful of women, nobody in this film seems to feel anything more urgent than how the plates might be arranged for dinner. Piques of jealousy, fear, passion, feminist rage? – None of seems to have made the final cut. Perhaps it’s a Gothic affectation that upper-class Southern ladies enjoy French grammar and music lessons accompanied by exploding cannonballs. Whenever there is hope for an exciting narrative twist, the ladies spontaneously assemble for a posed composition of exquisite elegance and formality as if beckoned by a painter for a portrait sitting. This film is being sold as a thriller and certainly has no feel for that, the best shots in the film are some moody southern hanging vines and such, but when she rarely goes in for a shot of anything other than a bland medium to long shot it seems for little purpose. There is virtually no music or camera movement and in a story that takes place largely in confined spaces this is a deadly choice. It generates no momentum as it goes on and on. For a film that has no action and very little mystery, the film will succeed or fail based on the quality of its character dynamics. The film was highly touted as having an predominantly women cast and directed by Sofia Coppola, so one could reasonably assume it would create some great male/female tension or facilitate those themes. While the film does indeed try to do that, I never felt like it worked at all. I’m not asking for a film to be explicit in its themes or character intentions. This film wasn’t even ambiguous in any sort of way. None of the characters were fleshed out, especially Kirsten Dunst and Nicole Kidman‘s caricatures of repressed southern belles. The character arcs (if you can call them that) were wholly unsatisfying. 90 minutes later and I still wasn’t sure who these people were. More than anything, the film didn’t know what it wanted to be. If it wanted to be an art-house drama, it failed. At least had it become an entirely trashy thriller it may have been more enjoyable. The filmmaking is mediocre, the storyline dull, and the implications very problematic. I am rarely bored, but this one produced that effect on me. I kept waiting and waiting for something of substance (either physical or emotional) to happen, but it just never did. There are some nice shots here and there, but much of the cinematography is awkward and unambitious and the editing pretty disjointed. The cast here though is admittedly fantastic, which makes this a shame; and while the chemistry at times felt odd to me, the performances on their own merits are strong. Nicole Kidman is reliable as always, stern and graceful; Colin Farrell perfectly portrays the character to keep you guessing as to how genuine he may be. Is he a good man? Or has war made him evil? Or is he naturally evil? So many questions and so much complexity to him and the role; Kirsten Dunst really carries a lot of the film despite her role being somewhat limited considering the impact she has on the film. Elle Fanning is as always excellent, while the younger cast comprising of Oona Laurence, Angourie Rice, Addison Riercke and Emma Howard stand tall. On the whole, ‘The Beguiled’ is an excessively slow and quiet film making it constantly uneven and frustrating to watch.