Team Kidman ‘Kills It’ In Sofia Coppola’s, ‘The Beguiled’

The Beguiled is a Civil War thriller that takes place in 1864, three years into the war. Miss Martha, played by the amazing Nicole Kidman, is running an all girls’ boarding school on a beautiful plantation home in the Confederate South when they provide refuge to a Union soldier.

And boy o boy, does putting a man in the middle of a group of isolated women change things up a bit.

Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell), carries in some welcomed life to this isolated school, along with severe wounds and severe drama to pair. The women team up to provide care to the injured soldier, but not without serious sexual tension and the development of rivalries amongst the women. Who can blame them?!

I’m sorry, but if I were in an isolated, hot ginormous plantation with no one but women….and then someone the likes of Colin Farrell showed up…it would be game on. And it was. Nicole Kidman, Kirstin Dunst and Elle Fanning are brilliant and elegantly carry this film from start to finish.

What’s different about this adaptation of The 1971 Beguiled, starting Clint Eastwood, is that (amazing and brilliant) director, Sofia Coppola is telling the story from the women’s point of view. And it works so very well.

Farrell says that the movie “explores how the more animalistic aspects of human behavior can be provoked – and pervade – even when you’re not on the front lines….The violence of the human heart is a timeless theme, no matter what period a story takes place in.”

“The story is Southern Gothic, with things bubbling under until they get to a boiling point and then an explosion happens. It’s not horror, but it feels like there is horror in it, with intensity and destruction – all made more compelling because this is happening among women,” says Dunst.

While watching this film, the absolute most stunning part was the soundtrack, or the lack thereof. Coppola’s artistic choice to keep a mostly silent film, in terms of soundtrack, is spectacular and kept this piece so much more suspenseful for me.

The contrast in color with these women and their surrounding war time climate, made them all look like angels. You know, the kind of angels that um….stick together and get stuff done.

After a dramatic turn of events, we can clearly see Team Kidman and the women players sticking together. The power of the female group is strong.

And keep a lookout for the very talented young lady, Oona Laurence, who plays Amy. This young tony-award winning actress is only 14 years old, but bound for the most brilliant things. Love that girl.

The Beguiled opens in select theaters on June 23rd and wide release on June 30th.

 

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