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USA 2017
Opening June 29, 2017
Directed by: Sofia Coppola
Writing credits: Sofia Coppola
Principal actors: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence
The time is 1864 and the American Civil War is in its third weary year. A young girl, Amy, (Laurence) is out foraging for mushrooms in a forest in Virginia. A sound alerts her and she sees a shape, a human shape, worst of all a human shape wearing a Yankee uniform, lying wounded by a tree. The “bluebelly” (Farrell) has a lively mind and a quick tongue. He introduces himself as Corporal McBurney and appeals for help. He rests his weight on the little girl and they hobble back to her home.
Home, in fact, is a girls’ boarding school run by Miss Martha (Kidman) in her many pillared mansion. Now there are only a handful of girls to teach, girls whose parents consider it safer to have them out of harm’s way in Virginia’s forests than in such wartime hotspots as Richmond and Charleston. Miss Martha and her assistant Edwina (Dunst) calm the young girls and persuade them that they must offer Christian charity to the young soldier, even if he is fighting for the wrong side and is their enemy. They all help to move him into the music room and Miss Martha puts her nursing skills to work by setting about repairing his wound.
As the good-looking young corporal starts to regain his health he also starts to exert his charms. Soon all the women, from Miss Martha to the youngest child, are succumbing to his flattery. It can only lead to trouble.
From the opening moments of The Beguiled the atmosphere of America’s Deep South is set. A continual chorus of cicadas accompanies the lingering view of moss covered trees which form a canopy over an empty path. Mist rising from the forest floor adds to the melancholy atmosphere of a country at war. Sofia Coppola has directed a wonderful movie which keeps the audience riveted to the end. Her attention to detail, such as in the costumes, the genteel mannerisms of well brought up Southern Belles and the atmospheric sets, are beautifully displayed in her movie. Miss Coppola fully deserves the award given to her at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Best Director, the first time it has been awarded to a woman. It is based on the book The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan. ()
Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd. — William Congreve, in The Mourning Bride, 1697
Corporal John McBurney (Farrell) must momentarily think he has died and gone to heaven, when he wakes up to a bevy of fawning females bedded in the music room in Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies. A wounded Union soldier in American’s Civil War, he is in enemy territory, having deserted his regiment in Confederate Virginia. He is discovered languishing in the woods by a young student Amy (Laurence) picking mushrooms. She helps him back to girls’ boarding school where all agree, spearheaded by the headmistress Miss Martha (Kidman) not to turn this Yankee over to their own Confederate soldiers till he has recovered enough to walk. That would be the Christian thing to do. It has been a long time since any of them have had a man, and such a handsome one at that, in their midst.
Director Sofia Coppola has created the enchanting dreamy world of Southern gothic splendor. The ante-bellum era is slipping away. That does not deter these seven well-bred, soft spoken, southern drawled, pastel clad creatures, all hankering to get close to this man. Headmistress Miss Martha relishes bathing and dressing the unconscious soldier, agonizing in her own desire. Prim and proper teacher Edwina (Dunst) dons a bridal nightdress to woo their guest. Precocious, smoldering teenager Alicia (Fanning) doesn’t bother with such niceties. Corporal John McBurney knows enough to charm them all, but is blissfully unaware of the horrendous consequences.