The Beguiled Review

R: For Some Sexuality

Focus Features, American Zoetrope

1 Hr and 34 Minutes

Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence, Angourie Rice, Emma Howard, Addison Riecke 

REVIEW: When it comes to movies today, there has been a huge trend with reboots and remakes. We see a lot of unnecessary remakes recently which fails to add anything to the original. Later on this year we’re getting a remake to Flatliners, and everyone in unison is going,

Then when Sofia Coppola announces that she’s doing a remake of a 1971 Don Segal flick you can't help but be enticed. It's Sofia Coppola! Though I wasn’t fond of her previous theatrical release being The Bling Ring back in 2013, it was great to see that she’s back at it with a new take on a classic film.

At a girls' school in Virginia during the Civil War, where the young women have been sheltered from the outside world, a wounded Union soldier is taken in. Soon, the house is taken over with sexual tension, rivalries, and an unexpected turn of events.

THE GOOD: Right off the bat, the immediate thing you can appreciate Coppola for with this film is the artistry. Coppola bravely adds a remastered look and modern technological techniques to make this more than just your average remake. Besides that, Coppola adds a script that drastically differs from the original. There are no black house maids, a darker and chillier tone, more focus on the girls that live in the girls' house and less focus on romance but more on erotica. She adds the girls as an intricate part of the story more than it only being focused on the wounded soldier. Like Seigel, Coppola is fearless in displaying the realities of how gruesome the time of war is. The film is rated R for sexuality, but it has several gruesome images that make you squirm uncomfortably. 

You can tell that these females have been in this home for an extended duration of time since the Civil War has begun because they are all thirsty for that glass of water that is Corporal John  McBurney (except the young girls of course). They immediately get curious about their new visitor if you know what I mean. The film thankfully doesn’t rely on constant innuendos to elevate the sexual tension between some of the females that are put themselves out for John. There are only one, and that's it. It has a subtle and calm atmosphere long before chaos is built. 

All of the girls living in the house are savagely sassy even with the young age some of them are. Right when they bring the injured soldier into their home, some of them begin to talk trash towards him whether if it was in his presence or not. They’re written like characters straight off The Bad Girls Club minus the obscene vulgarity and the “boujeeness.” This is the Bad Beguiled Club. They are all prejudice towards him when deep down, he’s not a terrible person.

At first, you don’t get a clear-cut of these girls’ personalities, but as the film goes on, you get a sense of who they are and their nature. Coppola provides a clever way of doing so by having scenes of interactions with McBurney. Some of them want to get to know him, some of them don’t, and one of them just wants to have sex with him just because he’s a man and hasn’t been touched ever. You can easily tell who the person is just by that description.Elle Fanning has proven to be the marginally above average actress at her age with her wide range of roles. Throughout her career, she has taken many characters with many personalities, and her performance of Alicia is one of them. I’ve never seen Fanning as a character as thirsty as this. We know she was The Neon Demon, but in this, she is a straight up heathen. She’s manipulative, cunning, and does anything she can to have the ball in her court (well in this case McBurney’s balls in her court). Throughout the entire cast, I enjoyed her the absolute most. She was the one who consistently makes you laugh because of her trashy persistence to get McBurney.

Besides Fanning, the rest of the cast does an equally phenomenal job. You like Colin Ferrell because his character is layered more than your average soldier. Kristen Dunst is excellent for she can go from a heartless woman to a lady full of heart. And lastly, Nicole Kidman who can give you chills with just one look on her face. Even the other girls give excellent performances. Honestly, its kind Coppola used child actresses who starred in other films where they have proven to be good performers on their own. You have Oona Laurence from Southpaw and Angourie Rice from The Nice Guys to name a few, and they deliver performances as strong as the more experienced adults.

The cinematography in this is amazing. There haven't been many films this year that displayed incredible cinematography that was mesmerizing as Philippe Le Sourd’s. This is the man who did the cinematography of Seven Pounds then went on to doing The Grandmaster which earned him an Oscar nomination in 2013. Hopefully, this is the film that will get him that Oscar because of its spectacular. The film has an indigo color palette throughout with nearly every shot. The amazing thing about the palette though is that it takes up a large part of the screen but around the outlining borders the palette is black. There are also some standout signature shots that are breathtaking. The final shot of the film is so gorgeous that I predict that it will make its way into Film Auteurs and Cinematography classes. It's one of those shots that you would see in a CineShot Twitter post to make you astounded of the craft that was put behind this. Honestly, I just wanted to take a picture and save it as a screenshot.

THE BAD: Just because the film is based on a 1971 film doesn’t mean the romance has to be as underdeveloped as a 1971 movie. We have McBurney attracted to Kristen Dunst’s Edwina Dabney, and they share a meet-cute scene at first, but after sharing two more scenes after (which are brief), you see the man pull out the “L” word and request her to do the most cliched thing in these types of films. It is not a genuine romance in any way shape or form.

The film does ultimately take a dark turn as it does in the original but here's the issue with that. The movie does a great job setting up these characters and developing emotions these girls have with their guest. The turning point, on the other hand, escalates so quickly that the reasoning for several characters actions doesn't make much sense. As it roughly transitions to a thrilling third act some of the characters’ actions are either illogical or straight up silly. There are moments you question how is McBurney able to do some of the things he can when he’s never been in the condition he’s in before.

LAST STATEMENT: Though the tension deteriorates closer towards the third act, Sofia Coppola adds enough stylistic flair with her filmmaking, script, and her talented cast to make her fresh take on The Beguiled a sleek and thrillingly good time.

Rating: 3.5/5 | 78%

Super Scene: What do we do of Corporal?