Review of The Beguiled (2017) by Reel Life R — 29 Jun 2017

The Beguiled (2017) - Not since Bambi have I seen so many twitterpated characters. But at least in that movie I actually cared about what happened to them.

The trailers had me thinking there was going to be a Misery slant to the film, with Nicole Kidman playing a civil war version of Annie Wilkes, but that was completely misrepresented. It is a plodding story that lacks intrigue and and any realistic character motivations. You'd honestly think these women had never seen a man before with how taken they are by him. Since the basis of the story is this already-flimsy premise, it has no hope of building from there.

The ensemble does a serviceable job with their performances, but they didn't get me interested in them individually. The size of the cast, while already relatively small, should have been pared down even further. Three of the students are all but interchangeable, so merging them into a single character would have allowed me to get more invested in the group overall.

It really can't be overstated how much this movie spins its wheels. Over an hour is focused on waiting for a leg to heal and watching characters from age 8 to 48 throw themselves at the injured party. We are then served a thrown together final act that is void of reason.

I had high hopes for this film, but ultimately came away disappointed. Farrell and Dunst, combined with the overall esthetic, brought the score higher than it would have been otherwise, but when you're that far down, really the only way to go is up.