Nicole Kidman Elle Fanning Kirsten Dunst Colin Farrell Oona Laurence Angourie Rice Addison Riecke
Beguile:
To deceive with charm. By
the end of the film, which ends up being something of a thriller, exactly to
whom the title refers is ambiguous.
The wounded Union soldier found in the woods by a young girl, Amy
(Laurence) on a southern plantation during the Civil War is charming, polite,
and gracious to his rescuers/hosts.
Tenderhearted Amy has helped him limp to the girls boarding school where
she lives, counting on the head mistress, Martha Farnsworth (Kidman) knowing
what to do with him. Miss Martha
is a Christian who is committed to its principles, so thinks it moral and
proper to treat him before sending him on his way or notifying Confederate
soldiers. Her ambivalence is
increased when she talks to some passing soldiers with prisoners and find they
are taking them to prison to die.
Col. John McBurney’s (Farrell) charm has an
oily feel to it from the start, prompting the viewer to wonder what he wants to
get out of it; he is clearly not without guile. He is lavish with his compliments anytime one of the
residents does something for him, and he flirts shamelessly but knowledgeably—that
is, he has a sense of what approach will be pleasing to each individual. And he has a dark side, which will be
revealed as the stress level rises.
Quite the opposite, Miss Martha is crisp and
direct with John, purposefully stifling any hope he might have of piercing her
armor and being of help to him.
She makes it clear that she is only doing her duty and will send him on
his way as soon as he is physically able.
Nevertheless, he persists, knowing from past experience that he is able
to wheedle his way past feminine defenses.
But John has likely never been in a situation
where he is surrounded by six females, all being drawn to him simply because
he’s a male because it’s been so long since any of them have been around
men. They’re staying holed up in
the school because for various reasons there is no other place for them to
go. Everyone else has gone home
for Christmas. He seems almost
giddy about being the object of their competition with one another,
particularly the three adult women, Martha, Edwina (Dunst), and Alicia
(Fanning). He has a special bond
with Amy in their mutual fascination with plants and animals. When he is better, he will work in the
garden. Jane (Rice) plays piano,
which draws her to him, and Marie (Riecke) simply lets him know she cares about
him.
There are tense moments when soldiers come by
the house (with John hidden), and as jealousies arise and John’s leg begins to
heal, allowing him to be more mobile, the situation comes to a resounding
crisis. Feeling desperate and
emasculated, John’s dark side surfaces, and the women must defend
themselves. This is where their
guile sheds more light on the title, The
Beguiled.
The film is well conceived (based on a novel by
Thomas Cullinan) and directed by Sofia Coppola, who well deserves the
director’s prize she received for her work at this year’s film festival in
Cannes. Although I’m not always a
fan of her work, this production moves along at a good pace, and facts about
the characters are revealed gradually, heightening suspense. In addition, the astute psychological
observations about women, women and men, and how they behave in specific
situations rings so true.
Nicole Kidman won a special price at Cannes for
being in four different films screened there, one of them being The Beguiled. As Martha Farnsworth, an upper-class southerner, she carries
the role with precision, with just the right degree of softness, authority,
compassion, and intelligence.
Although keeping her emotions in check, she clearly shows affection for
her charges, and listens to them respectfully like a wise leader. Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning lend
fine support in their veneers of compliance masking rebellious leanings. I was really taken with Oona Laurence’s
character Amy and her performance.
One of the delights of the film were the scenes when the females were
together making decisions in a spirit of unity.
Philippe Le Sourd’s cinematography contributed
greatly to the mood and look of The
Beguiled, with varying brightness, darkness, and chiaroscuro effects. Once, an exquisite close-up of a spider
web clarified the visual and symbolic meaning of the scene and the film as a
whole.
An intriguing picture of women sparring
with/over a man.
