I Do Declare That The Beguiled Is a Mighty Fine New Effort From Sofia Coppola!

We've had a lot of movies over the past century or so that have dealt with the dramatically potent theme of normal people being forced to do ghastly things in order to survive in a wartime setting. The concept being revisited so many times is understandable given what a thought-provoking idea it is and how constantly relevant it is given the permanent presence of war in every society in the world. Such an idea gets re-contextualized again for Sofia Coppola's newest motion picture The Beguiled, a remake of a 1971 film that starred Clint Eastwood, which looks to the Civil War as a backdrop for what happens when seven ordinary women are faced with the prospect of having to do the unspeakable to survive.

These seven women live in one large estate that serves as a school for the five young girls of the group in Georgia, close enough to nearby battlefields to make the sound of gunfire and cannons going off a normal occurrence for all of them. Miss Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman) is the head teacher of this place with Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) serving as another instructor at this location. Despite the nearby presence of the carnage of war, things seem to be going reasonably well for all seven of them...until a heavily wounded Union soldier, Corporal John McBurney, is discovered in the nearby forest.

The man will need serious medical care or he'll die promptly, so Farnsworth makes the bold decision to welcome McBurney into their teaching complex so they can help heal him. The majority of the five students, including Alicia (Elle Fanning), are incredibly distrustful of McBurney while he's staying here due to his status as a Union soldier, but while he recovers, they all grow to trust him and consider him a friend, especially Edwina, who may just harbor deeper more passionate feelings for McBurney (how could she not considering it's frigging Collin Farrell with his natural Irish accent?). If you think this kind of peaceful friendly tranquility can last...it doesn't. Let's just say some betrayal leads to accidental mutilation and from there, well, far be it from me to ruin what goes on from there...

The thing I enjoy the most about The Beguiled is how it refuses to sit inside any conventional narrative structure in order to tell its story. It's not quite a melodrama, it's certainly not camp, it's its own thing and that suits the story it's trying to tell and the tone it's aiming for nicely. Instead of confining the story to just one mold for its entire running time, Sofia Coppola's screenplay has a refreshing sense of unpredictability to it that runs the gamut from straight up period-piece drama to a third at that goes between steamy thriller to suspenseful survival movie without missing beat. Such a tonally versatile script feels like a fine companion to the more unpredictable world its seven female characters exist in while trying to survive the Civil War.

In chasing its ambitions, that same screenplay does stumble in some key areas certainly, namely in how Edwina doesn't quite feel like she's as full-formed as an individual as she could be while there are two third act scenes with a gun-toting belligerent Collin Farrell that feel too overly familiar and undercut the intense rhythm of what should be a total nail-biter through-and-through part of the movie. There are some underwhelming story details in here like that, but even when it falls, I still felt like giving props to The Beguiled for trying stuff that was simultaneously different, contemplative and giddily macabre, it really does feel like Coppola was swinging for the fences here on a story level.

There's a similar level of ambition apparent in the visual approach of the movie, which really takes advantage of the period-era setting with unique lighting choices (it's a pre-lightbulb world so all the interior lighting in nighttime scenes come from candlelight), glorious 19th century costumes (Kirsten Dunst has some awesome outfits in this movie) and grandiose shots courtesy of cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd that certainly allow the viewer to take in the splendor of the surroundings of the home of these seven women. There's a few pieces of editing and shot choices in the conversation-heavy scenes that are distractingly subpar, but otherwise, The Beguiled really does shine in being such a distinctive looking motion picture.

And as for the various actors assembled here, they're all in all turning in stellar work, particularly Nicole Kidman as an authoritative figure who's delightful in how she tosses out stern and wise declarations as naturally as blinking. Kirsten Dunst brings a soft-spoken and optimistic air to Edwina and handles her characters growing disillusionment with the darker forces appearing in her world in a tragic manner while Collin Farrell also works well as the new man intruding on the lives of these women. Special props go to young actor Oona Laurence as Amy, who delivers lines like "Please sir, don't yell! You'll frighten Michael!" with the perfect amount of old-timey youthful sincerity that this character needs. Even if The Beguiled stumbles a bit on its march towards the finish line, it's performances like that and the more audacious tendencies in the visuals and writing that make this a really good new effort from filmmaker Sofia Coppola.