"The Beguiled" Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman & Kirsten Dunst Is Not Worth Your While

"The Beguiled" is a revival of the 1971 film which starred Clint Eastwood based on the novel "A Painted Devil" by Thomas Cullinan.  Sophia Coppola ("Lost in Translation" & The Virgin Suicides") puts a dry spin on a Civil War story where a Union soldier, Cpt John McBurney (Colin Farrell) receives refuge in a finishing school in VA towards the end of the Civil War.  The finishing school is occupied by a handful of young woman under headmistress Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman.)  Amy, one of the few remaining young girls in the southern school is scavenging mushrooms when she comes upon the wounded McBurney.  Taking sympathy upon the enemy soldier whom she can't discern as alien to Confederate soldiers, helps him seek refuge at the Seminary for Young Ladies.  Miss Martha takes him in as the Christian thing to do only to help him recover from his wounds with the intent of turning him in as a prisoner of the Confederacy.   Coppola's antebellum film is cast in faded sepia tones & candlelight revealing an epoch that is crumbling forever as they are studying French grammar.  Miss Martha and her assistant Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) are still trying to cull southern etiquette & mastery requisite for young girls while the Union soldier recuperates and the world around them is burning to the ground.  Sexual flames are stoked by the dashing soldier's presence amidst a chaste & male deprived society.  McBurney is able to beguile & manipulate Miss Martha, Edwina and Alicia (a vixen Ella Fanning) to his advantage.  The women ignite their libidinous womanly whiles to capture the attentions of their captive Captain.  Hell has no fury like a woman scorned and there will be a heavy price to pay.  The power shifts as captive turns captor but nothing is fully captivating.  What's fatally lacking is tension & suspense.  "The Beguilded" has a monochrome, ephemeral aura without substance.  Coppola could have created a provocative thriller.  Instead, this was film felt arid & dusty, too easily blown away with the wind.