When I first heard of “The Beguiled”, I was interested in seeing this because of the talent involved in the project. When you have Nicole Kidman, Kristen Dunst, Colin Farrell and Sofia Copploa directing, I had to check this film out.
The film takes place during the civil war where a solider lies nearing death in front of a girl’s boarding school. The headmistress of the school takes him in so that he can recover from his wounds. Soon, the girls at the school start to take a liking to him. This leads to tension and danger that may turn grim for everyone at the boarding school.
I was hoping that this would be a good film considering that I like Sofia Copploa’s previous work including films like “The Virgin Suicides” and “Lost in Translation”. After watching “The Beguiled” I was surprised that I ended up feeling disappoint with the screenplay considering that I thought the directing and acting was good.
Sofia Copploa’s directing here was very good. She does a very good job with making sure the film moves at a good pace through her direction. Whether it was the way the film was shot to making sure the performances are good, everything somewhat makes up for the film’s screenplay. The other thing that she does very well is to make sure she gets the performance that she needs. It made the film worth sitting through as she makes sure that the performances are strong enough that you’re kept interested in this film.
Speaking of the performances, I though Kristen Dunst, Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell were very good in their roles. I liked how each of them are able to make sure their performances fit the era in which this film takes place. They made sure that they had chemistry with each other to keep the scenes moving and make the characters interesting enough to keep my interest even though I wasn’t happy with the film’s screenplay.
Speaking of the screenplay, I thought this was one of Sofia Copploa’s weakest screenplays. One of things that doesn’t make this work was lack of tension in most of the scenes. The felt like it was going on one note for most of it as it felt it wasn’t connecting with me. If it wasn’t for the performances, the film would be much worse. It was until the third act where the tension picked up and made it interesting. I wished there was more of that in the beginning as it would’ve make it more an interesting film. I really wanted to like “The Beguiled” as the performances were very good here and the direction was solid. But, a weak screenplay hurts whatever good this film has. If you’re into the performance and directing aspects, this is worth watching. But if you’re into story and dramatic action, this film lacks that for two thirds of it. The film’s disappointing screenplay ruin any chance of “The Beguiled” from being one of the year’s best.
The special features on the disc is light as there are only two short featurette on the disc. Both “A Shift in Perspective” and “A Southern Style” both were good. They both go into the filming of the film and the locations that were used to create the time period that the film takes place. My only complaint was that I wished they were longer and went more in depth.
Review Rating: Three Stars
Extras: Two Stars