The Beguiled (2017)

Directed by Sofia Coppola. Starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence, Angourie Rice, Emma Howard, Addison Riecke. [R]

Towards the end of the Civil War, wounded Union soldier Farrell is taken in by what remains of a Virginia girls school—headmistress Kidman, teacher Dunst, and a handful of students—many of whom vie for his attention (and affections) while he recovers. Coppola’s misty, painterly grace creates a suitably dreamlike seduction where fable and realism can commingle; it’s the spell she creates, muffling but not defeating all the melodramatic stirrings and bodice-ripping hunger, that restrains the story from any trace of soapy excess. When the film finally does succumb to its sexual jealousy and Southern Gothic revenge angles in the final third, the cautious mood starts draining away to make room for hothouse hysterics, but it still makes for a satisfying twist on the male-gaze fantasy of its earlier episodes. Atmospheric, artfully-framed photography by Philippe Le Sourd. Adapted by Coppola from Thomas P. Cullinan’s same-named novel; previously filmed in 1971 with Clint Eastwood.

74/100