The Beguiled Review - Subversion of a Fairly Misogynistic Classic

As far as remakes go, little separates Don Siegel's The Beguiled and Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled. The plot beats are mostly identical, save for the lack of slaves, which definitely makes the women of the girl's school more likable. Because, you know, not having slaves is a nice thing to do. The main justification for the remake is to subvert the borderline exploitation film that was the 1971 version, a film which would give Barbara Creed an aneurysm.

Here, Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst's characters aren't quite so easily tricked - dare I say, beguiled - by Colin Farrell's earnestly charming union soldier John as they nurse his wounds, especially the naive portrayal of the latter's naive Siegel counterpart. There's also plenty of feminist subtext to sink your teeth into without beating you over the head with a phallus about it. For example, some telling french lessons and a 'typical' female chore that is dangerous for the unsuspecting male. Nous sommes femmes.

The cast are all solid, but the younger cast are the standouts. The Nice Guys' Angourie Rice and Southpaw's Oona Laurence hold their own well against veteran award winners. Something that is transposed from the original is the lack of suspense for the first hour. It's not a detrimental element, but it will make the film meander for some. For the most part though, it is a quietly suspenseful thriller with enough emotional tension among the repressed women to keep people on-board.

FOUR-ISH STARS. The cross-cutting of Clint Eastwood's lies with the truth is missing, but that does make Colin Farrell's successor more ambiguous, even if it was the highlight of the original and did make John a gloriously loathsome bastard.