Fearsome Femme Three

Rating: 8/10 (20 April 2019)

After so many films about Elizabeth I, it's interesting to see Queen Anne at the centre of things in this, the latest in a genre of stylised recreations of the Eighteenth Century such as 'The Draughtsman's Contract' and 'Ridicule' which drool over the costumes (Sandy Powell does her usual magnificent job here when let loose on a bygone era) and decor while happily confronting the more squalid aspects of Eighteenth Century life, such as Queen Anne's gout.
The constant fussy use of steadicam and fisheye lenses (plainly originally inspired by Kubrick's 'Barrie Lyndon') fortunately doesn't detract from the absorbing and sometimes amusing machinations between the fearsome sapphic triumvirate of Oscar-winning Olivia Colman as the Queen literally on her last legs, saturnine Rachel Weisz and lynx-eyed schemer Emma Stone.