The Beguiled, the 1971 Southern Gothic drama that saw Clint Eastwood lock lips with a 12-year-old he insisted was “old enough for kisses,” is back in a new form that hopefully involves less statutory smooching. Sofia Coppola directs this latest adaptation, which stars Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, and prior Coppola ingenues Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst. Based on the Thomas P. Cullinan novel A Painted Devil, the film centers on a Louisiana all-girl boarding school that takes in an injured Yankee soldier near the end of the Civil War. As the hunky Northerner’s charms and emotive eyebrows begin to win over the residents, lust and jealousy begins to fill the school’s estrogen-heavy walls.
As far as remakes go, this one looks pretty great. Especially if you instead consider it a psychosexual remake of the 2005 Tommy Lee Jones comedy Man of the House
The Beguiled hits theaters June 23.
