The Beguiled * * * *

Southern hospitality. Don't get too comfortable.

By my reckoning Sofia Coppola has never made a bad film. (unlike her Dad who, despite his reputation, has probably made many more bad ones than good ones).

      In her latest film, The Beguiled,  the concept is “What if we actually got to know the enemy?” A similar theme was explored in Tangerines, (and I'm sure quite a few other films). But if the theme is not so original, this story is - as is the telling of it.

     Set in the American Civil War, seven genteel women and girls are taking sanctuary at a private school, which is temporarily closed.  One morning they discover a wounded Union Soldier in the garden and take him in.  Thus they begin a closer, more direct, engagement with the enemy than most active soldiers would experience.  

      Not only do they find him to be human and caring just like them, but they also find him attractive.  Well he is jolly handsome after all (it’s Colin Farrell).  
So, hey, if you had Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning, throwing themselves at you which one would you choose?  (Sorry, I shouldn’t have written that last sentence. Pretend it’s not there.)   What I meant to write is, the above actresses who play the three eligible ladies are very convincing in their combination of modest restraint and encouraging glances.

        As the soldier recuperates the flirtation between him and the three women increases, but he seems to be playing them off each other… until one night….

        After that the dynamics change and he is indeed treated as the enemy - and acts like it.

        Coppola captures all the nuances in this fascinating simmering drama from the perfect white dresses worn by the ladies, to the brutality of operating on a wounded man with limited medical materials and experience.

        It's a visually beautiful film, mostly shot on location on a plantation mansion in Louisiana.   When they’re outside the distant sound of cannons can be heard.   

       The lighting, both exterior and interior,  is so exquisite it has to be mentioned.