Ranking Colin Farrell's 10 Best Movie Performances
3. The Beguiled - John McBurney
A criminally underrated film, this 2017 remake of the Don Siegel/Clint Eastwood Western paired Farrell with Sofia Coppola, one of modern cinema’s great directors of actors. Set towards the tail end of the American Civil War, he plays John McBurney, a union soldier and deserter discovered wounded in the woods by the few remaining students of a Virgina girls’ school.
While the women are at first suspicious of this unwelcome guest, the handsome, mysterious man soon becomes a welcome change of pace. What unfolds is a gradual shift in power, though, with McBurney quickly going from the cat who got the cream to a man trapped in the middle of nowhere, in a dangerous situation of his own creation.
Coppola’s heightened reality leanings give her actors great scope to perform, and Farrell, along with Kirsten Dunst and Nicole Kidman (both among their career-best), cut loose in the best possible way. It’s a beautiful film to look at but tense, mysterious, and unpredictable.