‘The Beguiled’ Review

The Beguiled is a much needed and welcome relief from the plethora of big budget summer blockbusters and ubiquitous superhero films. The film successfully treads the line between a dark examination of sexual politics and a lavish, melodramatic costume drama. The Beguiled is a masterclass in the art of building suspense, but the film gears towards an explosive climax which never truly arrives.

It is easy to see why The Beguiled earned Sofia Coppola Best Director

Based on the novel by Thomas P Cullinan, The Beguiled follows Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell), a dashing wounded Union soldier in enemy terrain during the American Civil War, who is taken in and nursed by a ladies’ boarding school, run by Miss Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman). After years of isolation in the Virginia countryside, deprived of all male company, the young women tending to McBurney’s wounds become fascinated by and entranced with him, vying with one another for his attention. In turn, a darker and more sinister side of McBurney is revealed, as he begins to manipulate and play with the affections of these young women.

It is easy to see why The Beguiled earned Sofia Coppola Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the second woman ever to have done so. The film is visually stunning and Coppola deftly parallels the military conflict raging outside the house with the more subtle conflict raging within it, with distant gun shots and cannon fire ever present in the background of the remote country school.

Kidman gives a nuanced performance as the resilient, yet emotionally closed Miss Martha

Unlike the 1971 film of the same name, directed by Don Siegel, Coppola’s adaptation of The Beguiled focuses on the female perspective, emphasising the monotonous, stifling atmosphere of the school, the drone of the cicadas and the claustrophobia of these women’s cloistered existence.

The standout performances of the film are Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. Farrell shines as the charming, intoxicating McBurney and Kidman gives a nuanced performance as the resilient, yet emotionally closed Miss Martha. While both are sympathetic, there is a menacing aspect to both of these characters which leaves us questioning their true intentions.

Nicole Kidman in ‘The Beguiled’. Image credit: UPI Media; Focus Features

While Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst respectively do their best as the flirtatious student Alicia and Edwina Morrow, a teacher who yearns for affection. However, neither of these actors have enough to work with, and both characters are left underdeveloped. Indeed, Edwina’s lack of development heavily impacts on the finale of the film; we do not understand what motivates her actions and her character arc is left incomplete and unsatisfying.

The film’s conclusion is a little underwhelming; Coppola builds tension which never quite finds its release and the finale cannot live up to the dizzying heights of the scenes which come before it. The first two thirds of The Beguiled are a masterpiece, but it ends with more of a whimper than a bang.

Despite these flaws, The Beguiled is a period drama with real bite. It is thick with dark humour, and Coppola expertly uses quiet moments and stolen glances to convey her characters’ lust, suspicion, fear, inner rage and malice. Long after its conclusion, The Beguiled leaves us still uncertain of who is toying with who, who is the predator and who the prey.