Speaking of Clint Eastwood (who I referred to in my review of Maudie), possibly his oddest starring film is the 1971 Civil War drama The Beguiled, which this film remakes with Colin Farrell in Eastwood’s role of Union soldier John McBurney being nursed back to health by seven women and girls at a Virginia girls’ school.  It is a story that would seem to lend itself to sexual tension and eroticism (the first one did), yet this new version seems more concerned with the girls’ relationships to one another than to the outsider within their midst.

Sofia Coppola’s film is a big tease until finally McBurney makes it into the bed of one of the young women — and it isn’t who it is expected to be, either by the girls or the audience.  Then, seeing as how the enemy soldier has infiltrated their ranks, something must be done, and everything that follows is anticlimax.  The strangest aspect to me is how Coppola films the drama, using just natural light (which makes sense) and long shots (which does not).  The lack of closeups, or even medium shots, is distractingly noticeable — it’s almost as if Coppola believes everything must be seen as relating to the group rather than on a personal basis.  I found that approach not just distracting but distancing, and I think it really takes viewers out of the picture.

Sexual politics seems to be an important theme to writer-director Coppola, as each of the young women reacts to the presence of the earthy, handsome Northerner in different ways.  I probably missed some of the themes or their layers because I am a man, but the story never seemed to spark the way I felt it should.  Meanwhile, the film’s moral compass asks viewers to decide if the girls’ ultimate treatment of McBurney is justifiable, even in war.  This gothic tale is a strange one all the way around, no matter which version one is watching (I prefer Don Siegel’s 1971 version).

Despite the talent involved in the distaff side (Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence, Angourie Rice, Addison Riecke, Emma Howard), Sofia Coppola’s film seems underwritten and too reserved.  Surely more intrigue would accompany the arrival of an enemy soldier; these girls are entirely too well-behaved.  The only one who seems real to me is Edwina (Kirsten Dunst), whose actions are quite dramatic when they occur.  ☆ ☆.  29 July 2017.