WIDESCREEN FOCUS: THE BEGUILED

THE BEGUILED | Focus Features | Directed by Sofia Coppola | Drama, Historical,Thriller | 93 min. | R

This article should really be titled 'a case for smart summer counter-programming' as it was phenomenal to see this film -- which had already received raves for its cast and director, Sofia Coppola -- make such a sensationally strong debut in the top ten of the box office, doing so with only a small swatch of venues to accomplish this. To see it double down and stay in the top ten its second week, in July during a crowded summer of blockbuster fare, is exactly why films like this should be released during this time and can make a difference: people want to see them. With THE BEGUILED, director Sofia Coppola is like a master seamstress, taking cues from her past film, and even their actors (Kirsten Dunst from 2006's MARIE ANTOINETTE; Elle Fanning from 2010's genius SOMEWHERE) to not just remake the 1971 Southern Gothic drama thriller, but rather to custom craft and refurbish a heirloom mantle piece for admiration and show. 

Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) puts her girls on their best behavior -- or so it seems -- when Corp. John McBurney makes an unexpected visit.

Colin Farrell (on a winning streak with his film THE LOBSTER preceding this one in the art house realm and FANTASTIC BEASTS ... in the blockbuster arena, so props to his talent agent) takes the Clint Eastwood role of Corporal John McBurney. McBurney in this iteration, an immigrant from Ireland set up to fight with the Union 'Yanks' at the pivot of the Civil War. McBurney, like many in the throes of war, abandons his post after being bruised and battered from battle. It is here the girls of the Farnsworth Seminary come across him, hiding from the Confederate army in rural Virginia and convinces the sweet Miss Amy to take him back the all-girls school to go into hiding while he heals from his wounds. This seemingly innocent, albeit drastic, decision between the two sets off a chain of events that grips with its head games, innuendo and drama that the intoxicating web makes the viewer fly through the 90 plus minutes. Farrell is in his element here: reminiscent of his first work in TIGERLAND with his jockeyed mix of damage and worldly swagger.

Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell) admits his mutually beneficial affections for Edwina (Kirsten Dunst)

With wounds too severe to travel, the only man in the all girls' school quickly convinces everyone - including its head mistress, Miss Martha (played with such restraint, you expect her bodice to bust from it by deftly by Nicole Kidman) - that his care and hiding from the area confederate armies is the most important item on the school's curriculum. The plot bobs and weaves from the machinations of the girls' growing adoration for its 'wounded bird' and the evolving sexuality that comes from introducing a man into the equation. Misplaced affection, palpable desire and desperate survival become the currency in which McBurney thrives in this new environment. It is the misdiagnosis of the situation that takes the seven inhabitants into a twisted world of betrayal and real understanding of loyalty.

Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) and Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) reflect on the choice of actions the girls have taken with them.

The real star of this feature is the look and feel for this whole world created in late 19th century gauzy Southern Gothic airs and melancholy. The school, with its French lessons and etiquette delivered across threadbare, war-ravaged surroundings; the grounds of area Virginia overwrought with vines and weeds from lack of care. All is being done as this beautiful juxtaposition between the sublime of higher education, culture and the rawness of the reality in this time of America. To go into any further detail of the merging of these two worlds to the demise of McBurney and the girls would be a mistake. It is disappointing though that the entire cast of this film are white - with the South still being ensconced in slavery and other features in this time period like the recent THE KEEPING ROOM showing women surviving the violence of this time across color lines - but is pushed aside to get into the psyche of these girls and their unending need for acceptance that director Coppola works marvelously into each character to extremes with pleasing, lasting results. 

THE BEGUILED is now playing in select theaters.