This week I attended an early press screening of Sophia Coppola’s newest film, The Beguiled. I decided to bring my mom to the screening because of her love of movies. I know many of you were curious about the movie after I posted on Facebook that I was at the screening, so today I’m sharing The Beguiled Movie Review.
I attended an early press screening of The Beguiled. All Vengeful opinions are my own.
The Beguiled Movie Review #TheBeguiled
When I received the trailer from Focus Features for The Beguiled I was excited for such a strong female cast such as Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning. Then there’s Colin Ferrell, who doesn’t love that accent? With such a star studded cast you would only expect the best and with a female award winning director Coppola, but I left wanting more! Lets start off by sharing what I loved about the film.
The Setting and Backdrop
The movie takes place in the 1860’s, in Virginia at a plantation which is a boarding school for young girls to keep them safe from the war. Throughout the movie you can hear in the faint distance the sound of the war, but in the beautiful plantation home, the girls have their own war to win. Many of the scenes are breathtaking and it’s the perfect location for such a story of deceit and vengeance.
The Storyline
We all know that Coppola has recreated The Beguiled, in which the original shows us the point of view of the soldier staring Clint Eastwood. Coppola instead has turned the story around by giving us the fierce woman who live at the plantation. I’m all about woman empowerement and showing how these woman band together when the soldier tried to take advantage of the womans hospitality.
In the plantation lives the headmistress Martha (Nicole Kidman), teacher Edwina (Kirsten Dunst), and six students including Alicia (Elle Fanning). Each woman has taken on the role to the max, including those southern accents and the rise in sexuality. If you think about it, back during the war men were not around much and these woman were ready to pounce when John McBurney shows up on their property.
Wanting More
I truly want to give the movie rave reviews, but I felt like I left wanting more from the storyline. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was fantastic, but a bit of awkwardness in some of the scenes just took away from that sexual tension between the girls and McBurney. The trailer itself hinted a bit more suspense, romantically triangle, and possibly more than an amputation! I do love the fact that Coppola thought of turning the story around to show us a different point of view. Which is where my excitement felt short.
As always, I suggest watching the movie and creating your own opinion on The Beguiled, then come back and let me know your thoughts. The Beguiled is now playing in theaters and had breaking-record openings in NY and LA last week!
About The Beguiled:
The story unfolds during the Civil War, at a Southern girls’ boarding school. Its sheltered young women take in an injured enemy soldier. As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events.
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Do you have plans to go see The Beguiled this weekend?
Went and saw this movie yesterday. A late afternoon Florida thunderstorm rolled thru and we could hear thunder all during the movie. Pretty awesome. Sometimes I couldn’t determine if it was thunder or cannons we were hearing! I LOVED this movie. I’m a fan of the original movie too.
The same thing happened to my Tammy! I wasn’t sure if it was the canon or we were having a storm outside. Haha! So glad you loved the movie!
Excited to see this!