TRAILER
PLOT
Martha Farnsworth runs a girls school in Virginia during the Civil War. By 1864, almost all of the students, teachers, and slaves have left. In addition to Farnsworth herself, only five students and one teacher, Edwina Morrow, remain. While out in the woods searching for mushrooms, Amy, a pupil, comes across John McBurney, a corporal in the Union Army who was wounded in the leg during battle, and has since deserted. Amy brings McBurney to the school where he falls unconscious. The women lock McBurney in one of the rooms while Miss Farnsworth tends to his wounds. All the women and girls in the school are immediately fascinated by the handsome man.
Initially, some of the school's residents want McBurney to be delivered as a prisoner of war to the Confederate Army, but Miss Farnsworth decides that they will let his leg heal before they decide what they will do with him. When Confederate soldiers arrive at the school, Miss Farnsworth does not tell them that a Union soldier is on the premises. While McBurney is recovering, the women and girls subtly vie for his affection by giving him presents, wearing jewellery, and preparing a lavish dinner for him. He returns the affection, concentrating especially on Miss Morrow and Miss Farnsworth. When he is able to move again, he begins to help in the garden. It becomes clear that he fears returning to battle.
When Miss Farnsworth indicates that McBurney is healthy enough and will have to leave the school in a few days, he tries to convince her to let him stay as a gardener, and tells Miss Morrow that he has fallen in love with her. One night, he tells Miss Morrow to await him in her room. When he does not appear and she hears strange noises, she investigates and finds him in bed with Alicia, a teenage pupil. McBurney tries to appease the angry Miss Morrow, but she pushes him away, causing him to fall down the stairs, badly breaking his already injured leg and falling unconscious. Miss Farnsworth decides that the only way to save his life is to amputate the leg.
When he awakes the next day and realizes he has lost his leg, McBurney is devastated and furious, accusing Miss Morrow and Miss Farnsworth of having punished him for going to Alicia's room instead of theirs. He is locked inside the music room, but threatens Alicia into giving him the key. He then breaks out, steals a gun, and loudly threatens the women before storming off. When Miss Farnsworth sends Amy to the gate to signal McBurney's presence to Confederate troops, he spots her and pursues her at gunpoint to a shed, where Miss Farnsworth rescues her by talking him down.
After McBurney storms out, Miss Farnsworth and the students try to find a solution to the issue. Miss Morrow follows McBurney to his room, where she initiates sex. Meanwhile, Marie suggests killing McBurney by preparing him a dinner containing poisonous mushrooms, to which Miss Farnsworth agrees. During the dinner, Miss Morrow, unaware of the plan, is deterred by the others at the last minute from putting the mushrooms on her own plate, but McBurney's suspicions are not aroused. Promptly after eating the mushrooms, he falls to the floor dead.
While the students sew McBurney's body into a shroud, Miss Morrow looks on, devastated. The women drag McBurney's body to the road and attach the signal to the gate so that he will be found by the next Confederate soldiers who pass by.
CAST
Colin Farrell as Corporal John McBurney
Nicole Kidman as Miss Martha Farnsworth
Kirsten Dunst as Miss Edwina Morrow
Elle Fanning as Alicia
Oona Laurence as Amy
Angourie Rice as Jane
Addison Riecke as Marie
Emma Howard as Emily
Wayne Pere as the captain
Matt Story as confederate soldier
Joel Albin as cavalry man
Rating: 10 Stars
