The Beguiled starring Nicole Kidman review: A dull adaptation from Sofia Coppola
TO update Thomas P Cullinan’s novel for the 2017 arthouse crowd, Sofia Coppola has retold the story from the women’s perspective.
Nicole Kidman stars in Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled
The Beguiled (15, 92 mins)
Director: Sofia Coppola
Stars: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning
Now Colin Farrell’s soldier is a conniving coward, Nicole Kidman’s headmistress a steely matriarch and the film’s fuzzy message is about female empowerment.
The film earned Coppola the top gong at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and it is beautifully shot, well-acted and, despite the culling of all the black characters, mostly politically correct.
Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell
It’s also rather dull.
There are occasional visits from Confederate soldiers but if Coppola really wanted to craft suspense she would have given us someone to root for.
Weirdly, her focus seems to be on comedy. Most of the scenes seem to be aiming at broad laughs as the bored women compete for the handsome stranger’s affections.
Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman star in dark drama The Beguiled
Sadly, the closest thing to a killer line is a lame double entendre about Elle Fanning and her “apple pie”.
Coppola may be the darling of Cannes but she’s no Frankie Howerd.