Review of The Beguiled (2017) by Rogueedits . — 13 Jul 2017

It's unusual to discover such a dearth of subtlety in a film this restrained. Sofia Coppola's remake misses all of the nuance, verve, and ambiance that made the Don Siegel/Clint Eastwood 1971 original such a creepy delight.

Not only is this remake devoid of the necessary subtleties that make texture and suspense possible, it also takes the film's compelling premise--an inversion of the typical male/female power dynamic, set within a chaotic wartime wherein women are particularly vulnerable--and transforms it into a cartoonish meditation on what one can only guess is some clumsily considered 21st-century notion of "toxic masculinity".

In Coppola's "Beguiled", the female characters (and the audience) are let off the hook; there's never really any question, from what we can see, that Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell) "has it coming", more or less. The ladies' decision to do away with him is rather fecklessly justified, thus absolving them of any potential responsibility for the consequences of their use of power (both physical, and sexual). Hard moral questions are evaded, and the contemplation that might arise from deliberate ambiguity is clearly unwelcome.

What a cop out. Check out the original instead.