The Reel Review
Sexual politics takes center stage in this remake of the Civil War era tale about an injured deserter from the Union army seeking refuge at a girls boarding school in Confederate Virginia. In the 1971 version, Clint Eastwood was outstanding as a sexy but insufferable cad who wallowed in campy, sexual melodrama, making the story fun (and the ending ultimately believable). Sofia Coppola’s disappointingly watered down remake squeezes the life out of the sexual tension between Colin Farrell and the women (Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning), instead focusing on pretty costumes and the beautifully lit Southern gothic mansion draped in Spanish moss (which does not exist in Virginia). It all looks good but there just isn’t a lot of there, there.
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