Mississippi, 1863. The American Civil War rages across the country, including in the region near the Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies. While out picking mushrooms, one of the younger students finds an injured Union soldier. Despite the man being an enemy, she leads him back to the school for medical treatment.
Local Confederacy regulations call for the school's owner, Miss Farnsworth, to alert the authorities to the man's presence. However, she fears that sending him to the prison camp in his current state would be a swift death sentence, and resolves to wait to tell them until he is well enough to survive.
At least, that's what she tells herself, her students, and the school's limited staff. The fact that he's a handsome and quite charming young man might also have affected her decision. It has certainly affected several of the other women at the estate.
For his own part, the soldier recognises that keeping the women happy is the key to staying out of military prison ... and he clearly isn't averse to sampling any additional benefits that might accrue from charming these ladies.
Of course, that's a lot of different women to keep happy all at once, so our Civil War Casanova had best hope he's very good at juggling, or the situation is apt to explode in his face.
The Beguiled is a Southern gothic tale of conflicting agendas and desires. It's short on likable characters, and the make-up effects look quite dated (of course, it is a nearly 50 year old film), but it is well-acted, and if you're in the mood for watching not especially nice people be not especially nice to each other, with not especially nice consequences, this will certainly meet your needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment