In the midst of the American Civil War, on an abandoned Southern
plantation, there remains a girls school, seemingly marooned from the
world. It is headed by Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) and employs one
teacher named Edwina (Kirsten Dunst). She teaches five girls ranging
from eight years old to an almost adult named Alicia (Elle Fanning).
One day the youngest girl finds an injured Union soldier on the road
named Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell). He is taken into the
plantation where the women go about nursing him back to health.
According to the dictionary, to beguile means to “charm or enchant
(someone), sometimes in a deceptive way.” The titular “Beguiled”
in this movie is perhaps everybody in it. It is a case study in very
polite sexual tension. It is not just that Colin Farrell is handsome,
and he is, or that the house is full of hospitable southern women who
are quite beautiful, and they are, it is that there are several
dynamics in between all the characters playing at once. The union
soldier is injured so he must rely on the women. But the women are
trained by the culture and the time period to acquiesce to the man.
But the number of women in the house far outnumber the man. But the
women are competing amongst themselves for the man’s attention.
It is a credit to the writing and direction of this movie, that the
above does not drown itself in melodrama. Instead through very fine
attention to detail and pointed understatement the situation hovers
between absurdity and suspense. There is something funny about the
women offering the man a home-cooked meal (“would you like some
pie, corporal? It’s my special recipe.”) at a dinner they have
all dressed too much up at, and also something sinister about it
given that any actual sexuality would have drastic consequences. The
consequences again are on several levels: The impropriety of such a
lady-like institution harboring any such sensual situation, the
jealous competition between the ladies themselves, and then there is
the war waging outside that technically makes the man and all the
women sworn enemies.
The Director is Sofia Coppola, who based her screenplay off a
previous movie of the same title. (I bet this remake is much better.)
Ms. Coppola perhaps more than anybody in the business is a good argument for
nepotism. The thing is that, and if you ever watch interviews with
Ms. Coppola perhaps you would agree with me, Ms. Coppola doesn’t
really come off, forgive me, as a particularly interesting person.
She comes off strikingly competent, yes, but way too literal to be
engaging. For those who generally enjoy the insight of a director's interview, Ms. Coppola has a way of making it seem like there
is less to the movie than meets the eye. Of course, this shouldn’t
be held against her because what counts is the movie and not her
personality, and she does make good movies. I simply find it hard to
believe that she could have risen through the ranks without her last name because its hard to believe she could ever successfully
pitch a movie.
But whatever the reason she gets to make movies, it is a good thing
that she does. Most directors aren’t like Sofia Coppola and her
movies in turn are not like most. Just as nobody but Coppola would
imagine a biopic about Marie Antionette without a beheading, here
nobody would have had the follow-through to base a movie for such a
sustained period of time on tiny movements, glances, and phrases that
may or may not mean what they say they mean. Counter-intuitively,
“The Beguiled” may be a movie you should see in a theater because
it is small. If you saw it on Netflix, you might miss a good portion
of what is happening.
When the movie finally does get dramatic it is very satisfying. The
ensemble is perfectly cast. In particular, Nicole Kidman, as the
head-mistress, and Elle Fanning, as a really bored girl, do well in
their roles. Given the general dearth of good roles for women, I
wouldn’t be surprised if this movie got multiple Oscar nominations
for acting. And Colin Farrell again made me regret ever thinking he
was bad actor. I take it back. I really like that guy.
