THE BEGUILED is another ill-advised remake of an old-time movie, this time one of Clint Eastwood's more unusual pictures. I groaned inwardly when I saw that Sofia Coppola was directing - the memory of watching LOST IN TRANSLATION still haunts me - but the surprise is that this isn't bad at all. It's certainly well shot and acted, with Colin Farrell working hard in a difficult role and some of the female cast members also proving their worth in various ways, with Kristen Dunst the most interesting and Nicole Kidman the least. This is a slow-burning movie that picks up steam as it moves along, leading to an extended climax that provides plenty of effective drama. Like other Coppola movies I've seen parts of, however, it does suffer from the style-over-substance syndrome and ultimately feels hollow at times.

It's 1864 Virginia, 3 years into the Civil War. Amy finds wounded Yankee soldier Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell) in the woods and brings him back to Miss Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman)'s Seminary for young girls. All the slaves have run away. Edwina Morrow (Kirsten Dunst) is the last remaining teacher and Alicia (Elle Fanning) is one of the older students. Martha decides to let the Yankee rest rather than turning him over to the Confederates. The situation heats up as the female occupants compete for the prisoners' attention.

Sofia Coppola delivers a quiet, sparse tale of female competitive power. McBurney is no saint either. It's an empty fleeting world especially with the slaves abandoning the mansion. There is something eerie about this creation. I do want for more tension or more horror like Misery. It's hard to sympathize with any of the characters. Maybe she should concentrate on Edwina as the only protagonist. This has a nice haunted vibe but I don't feel for anybody.

"The Beguiled" is an American 90-minute movie from this year that was written and directed by Sofia Coppola and it is another strong addition to her career and is further helping her get out of her father's big footsteps. But the writing part is only partially true because the movie is based on a novel by Thomas Cullinan. So was the movie back in the early 1970s with Clint Eastwood playing the male protagonist. I have neither read the book nor seen the old version, so my approach here is fresh as a spring chicken. I would say I enjoyed the watch here overall. The cast gives good performances and even Kidman and Dunst that I am usually not a fan of were pretty decent I would say. Farrell was good as expected and his role here probably increases his heart throb status. My favorite from the cast, Elle Fanning, proves again she is among the best from her age group. And she is gorgeous too, a gorgeous beast her role is this time. I must admit I am not familiar with the other (all very young) actresses. We will see how their careers go in the next decades.

The first half of the film (probably slightly more even) is pretty harmless, romance may be the biggest genre and comedy may be more frequent than drama almost as the jealousy is there, but feels equally harmless and entertaining to watch. Then, after the amputation, it gets a lot more serious, very dramatic and pretty thrilling at times. Edge-of-seat material too and you wonder what happens next. A bit of a shame the trailer includes major spoilers. Nonetheless, as a whole, it was a good watch. I am not the biggest fan of period pieces really, but this one I liked. The air in the theater was basically full with estrogen from the film's characters. You could maybe say that Coppola makes films that are more for females than males (also her previous collaboration with Dunst) and you probably would not be wrong at all. But men can enjoy it too, if they can stomach scenes like the amputation being a direct consequence of the cheating. It's not a feminist or misogynist film by any means though. It's all good. I have a feeling that if anybody from the cast will score awards attention, then it will be Kidman, but maybe I am wrong. I also have a feeling that the movie already peaked in terms of awards recognition and will not repeat its success from Cannes with the big American awards bodies. We shall see. This of course is not anywhere near the level of Coppola's "Lost in Translation", one of my favorite films of all time, maybe number one, but "The Beguiled" is an interesting little film that is not too long for its own good and succeeds in its own right. I recommend checking it out.