Written by James Reilly – Student Pages Entertainment Journalist/Film Critic
Film Rating:
★★★★
The Beguiled, directed Sofia Coppola, is a remake of the 1970’s film of the same name starring Clint Eastwood. However in the main role this time around we have Colin Farrell playing the wounded Union solider that appears injured in the forest by a young girl school amidst the American Civil War. Rounded out be an all star cast including Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the film is visually beautiful. The cinematography is a sight to behold and the time period the film is set in helps to aesthetically create an atmosphere I’d consider one of the most beautiful of the year. The film, while beautiful, is equally dark, horrific and tense. Coppola manages to get the best out of her star-studded cast delivering some career best performances (most notably with Farrell in the lead). The cast help deliver the most important and tense scenes with such talent that you can’t help but take a deep breath in every-time the scene plays out. The sound aids the film impeccably with its score almost silent throughout the whole film and occasionally building where it sees fit.
There’s not much to say about this film as its such a composed, small scaled piece, almost perfect in what it goes out to accomplish. In saying that it is almost perfect in what it wants to achieve doesn’t mean what it set out to achieve was anything too special. It was trying to break genre traditions or break and make any strides in its narrative form. What it goes out to do, make a strikingly beautiful tense period drama – it does so very well.
I was pleasantry surprised at this film, not that I didn’t think it wasn’t going to be good – but it was good in ways I expect. I would highly recommend this film and despite it not being anything spectacular it was a solidly crafted, tense film that is one of the better films of thisMovie year.
Follow James at @JamesisGinger
