A girls boarding school takes in an injured, scheming, Civil War defector in this Cannes Best Director-winning period drama from Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette). All-star cast includes Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning.
This is Coppola's sixth feature, based upon the novel A Painted Devil (previously brought to the screen as The Beguiled, starring Clint Eastwood, in 1971). Story follows a Union soldier (Farrell) during the American Civil War who, while imprisoned in a Confederate girls' boarding school, cons his way into each of the lonely women's hearts, causing them to turn on each other, and eventually, on him.
Less
Sofia Coppola’s Civil War drama sees an injured Union soldier played by Colin Farrell at the mercy of Nicole Kidman and the inhabitants of her boarding school. It’s fertile ground for a modern-minded bodice-ripper, and the psychological dance between Farrell and the various women (and girls), is quietly thrilling.
Full review
Its power is in its undercurrents, in the sense that what we're seeing isn't inevitable but a sort of worst-case scenario of genders in opposition.
Full review
I count myself as a Coppola believer, but this may be the first film she has made in which her essential personality as a director gets buried under the movie she's making.
Full review
"Beguiled" is less a hothouse flower than a bonsai garden, a work of cool, exquisite artifice that evokes wildness on a small, controlled scale.
Full review
Perfectly paced and terrifically engrossing, Beguiled draws the viewer in with its shifting sympathies and nuanced characters.
Full review
"The Beguiled" has some of the spooky, suggestive magic of a fairy tale.
Full review
Other than to place slightly more emphasis on the female empowerment angle ... it's hard to detect a strong raison d'etre behind Sofia Coppola's slow-to-develop melodrama.
Full review
The Beguiled (2017) is available to stream in Australia now on Apple TV and Foxtel.
Get to your watchlist.
Or sign in with your email
Don’t have a Flicks account?
Keep track of the movies and show you want to see + get Flicks email updates.
Or sign up with your email
Already have a Flicks account?
Don’t have a Flicks account?
Remembered your password?
To post ratings/reviews we need a username. This is what will appear next to your ratings and reviews.
