The Favourite is the story of 18th century Queen of England, Anne
(Olivia Colman), and the lady (Rachel Weisz) and maid (Emma Stone) who compete
for her favor. I don't know how much of it, if any, is based on fact. I imagine
not much is true, and I don't care regardless. Queen Anne is a woman on the
edge of sanity. Gout has left her physically damaged and years of loss and
death has left her emotionally damaged. She's quick to anger and easily
overwhelmed. For years, Lady Sarah (Weisz) has been her closest advisor.
Sarah's distant cousin Abigail (Stone) shows up one day, hit by hard times.
Despite being raised as a lady, Abigail's family lost its fortune, and she begs
her way into a lowly maid job at the queen's castle. She is cunning though and
quickly ingratiates herself with Queen Anne. Mary, feels threatened by this,
and the two woman try to outmaneuver each other for the Queen's favor.
Meanwhile, Anne is not as clueless as she looks and has her own agenda with the
two women.
The trailer for The Favourite paints this as
a straight comedy, much like Love & Friendship
from a couple years ago. That's not quite accurate though. Perhaps all the
biggest laughs are in the trailer, and it masks the darkness of the humor. I'd
say this film is much closer to All About Eve. All the
characters have their own agenda. I mostly responded to the humor with
incredulous laughter. I was much more interested by the sliding scale of whose
intentions were the noblest in a given moment. Sarah genuinely cares for the
queen but also loves the power she has because of her relationship with Anne.
Abigail is self-interested. She's driven by self-preservation, but who could
blame her? It's easy to pity Anne because of her condition, but she's also very
selfish and abuses her power. While the film is sold as Stone vs. Weisz, it's
really a three-way battle of wits.
It doesn't surprise me that I like Lanthimos more as
just a director. He has a great eye for things. This film is filled with angles
and shots that never would've occurred to me. The most obvious is the use of a
fish-eyed lens that made me think of a fun-house mirror. Nothing about the
world of the film feels right. It's strategically anachronistic. Everything is
excessive. Nicholas Hoult and the other men in the parliament arguing over an ongoing
war with France have big hair and more make-up than the women. As a writer,
Lanthimos' dialogue sounds like an alien trying to pretend it's human, which is
too much when combined with his equally alien direction. When that direction is
combined with a sharp script, like this one (written by Deborah Davis and Tony
McNamara), it's maximizes the madhouse effect.
It's really hard to choose a best performance among
the three leads. Stone really sinks her teeth into being ruthless. Weisz has a
stewing rage throughout. Colman has the most deceptively complex performance
though. I didn't fully appreciate her work until the very end. Hoult too is
quite good. He's gotten very good at playing an elitist asshole. He still isn't
exactly unlikable in the role. The film is full of characters I love to hate.
The Favourite is easily my favorite of Yorgos Lanthimos' movies and probably
my favorite among this year's likely Oscar contenders. It's a heighten reality
that stops just short of being a cartoon. That really worked for me. It never
tries to be too clever and doesn't allow any of the characters to be simple or
binary (good/evil).
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend
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