The Beguiled

The Beguiled

While the cast is great and I'm always interested in seeing a good remake (even when I haven't seen the original), what mostly made me want to see this movie is the writer/director. Sofia Coppola's films are often divisive, but no matter how one may feel about the vastly different entries in her oeuvre, it's hard to deny that each of her films are unique and fresh in their own way. The Beguiled continues this pattern of freshness and seems to be far more liked than some of Coppola's other work, such as The Bling Ring, perhaps because it prefers a subtle soft fizzle to a daring loud bang.

Probably my favorite aspect of the film is that it's a chamber piece (also known as a bottle movie), and therefore has laser-focus on the handful of characters and their predicament. The story centers around Colin Farrell, a Union soldier who's been wounded and is stranded in the deep South. A girl finds him and takes her back to her home, where several other women live, and they figure out what to do with him. The film takes place entirely in a mansion on a plantation. There aren't slaves on this plantation anymore because they've run away, (which some might rightfully see as a cop(pola)-out, but I think it works because that's not the focus of this film, and slavery is such an obviously far more important and pressing matter over whatever these horny white ladies are up to that they needed to not be there in order to keep the focus on the central story. Unfortunately that also means everyone in the entire movie is white, but hey, at least they're almost entirely women? Right?) so it's just these seven Southern females and one man trapped in a single location. This is a great setup, but I won't spoil what happens next.

The performances are excellent, with everyone committing to a downplayed realism that still clearly conveys emotion. Farrell is charming but unpredictable, Kidman carefully carries authority in every moment, Dunst is the shining example of repression and frustration, and Fanning, though she has the least amount of screen time of the four leads, still leaves an impression with her seemingly impossible mix of innocence and aggression. I'd love to see all of these people receive nominations, as well as Coppola for doing such a fine job in directing them.

The cinematography is great, with plenty of gorgeous outdoor footage of the South (I was born in Tennessee and my favorite land in Disneyland is New Orleans Square, so this is an aesthetic that pleases me), and simple but effective interior shots of this impressive mansion (which apparently belongs to Jennifer Coolidge). Because the focus is entirely on these characters who are in one location, most of what's visually interesting this movie comes in the form of blocking, much like a stage play, and the blocking in this film is done excellently.

I'll continue to keep this spoiler-free, but based on the setup and the title, it's probably easy to guess that these women and girls become charmed (or beguiled) with Colin Farrell. There is thick tension laid throughout the entirety of the movie that almost exclusively contains desire. Sexuality is a very important part of this story, but it's done subtly. Now normally I'm a huge fan of subtlety, but in this case my one complaint with this movie is that while the feeling of eroticism could usually be detected, it wasn't always actually felt. These are repressed Southern ladies who all of a sudden have a handsome man in their home. It doesn't mean they should all be going insane and constantly trying to rip all of his clothes off, but the heat could've been turned up just a bit by seeing some more interactions between them and him. Honestly, I would've liked to have seen all of these characters delved into more deeply through more interactions with each other. Establishing a stronger connection between these characters could've taken the emotions much farther and made the movie all the more engaging.

This is all I'll say without spoiling anything. I'd recommend this movie for the visuals and the performances, but know that it's subtle and, while there are a couple crazy moments, for the most part it doesn't take as many risks as it could have. Still definitely worth checking out though, especially for fans of Coppola or any of these actresses/Colin Farrell.

Okay. One spoiler.

A big thing I like about this movie is that it doesn't exactly go where one might expect it. This premise seems to clearly be a setup for the three main women to all start deceiving and backstabbing each other, but instead in the end they all team up against him (with the exception of Kirsten Dunst's character Edwina, who seems to be the most beguiled of the three). This is a fun twist and also shines a much more positive light on women who are attracted to the same person, which is normally dealt with in movies by having them fight each other. Now more than ever there needs to be films that show women supporting each other, and if they can do that in this movie, they can do that in any movie.