Two hours of quirky fun!

Rating: 10/10 (8 December 2018)

"The Favourite" is a rarity in studio films; it feels fresh and original, intellectual and weird. It defies both description and expectation, leaving you unsettled, confused, and yet pleasantly warm.
Your experience watching "The Favourite" will not be enhanced by a deep knowledge of the plot, or of the historical events that surround the story. Indeed, the film reflects England under Queen Anne in much the same way that Game of Thrones echoes the Wars of the Roses, which is to say: sorta. In the world of "The Favourite," historical figures blithely employ anachronistic dialogue. Slanderous allegations of yore become genuine plot points. If the movie were making any sort of pretense towards historical accuracy, this might all be grating. "The Favourite," however, is far more concerned with constructing its sophisticated narrative than with faithfully depicting 18th century Britain to impress the four historians in the audience.
Our players, affectionate, shrewd, and manipulative, are as follows: Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne-gout-ridden, somewhat simple, and yet warm. Rachel Weisz is Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough-the Queen's friend, confidante, and puppet-master. Emma Stone, rounding out the triumvirate, plays Abigail-a noble cousin to the Duchess who has fallen below her station (her condition is most delightfully represented by her appearance in court: slathered with excrement). Lady Marlborough employs Abigail as her own maid, bringing her into the Queen's sphere with dramatic consequences.
All three actresses are exemplary, imbuing their performances with expressions and tics that communicate the veiled struggle for influence that their dialogue disguises. As Lady Marlborough and Abigail begin to square off, the chemistry between Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone becomes electric, their interactions nuanced and pregnant with subtext. Were "The Favourite's" DVD release to mimic "Lord of the Rings," with an hour of extra footage of Sarah and Abigail sniping at one another, I assure you, I'd be first in line at the Blockbu...internet to purchase it. Olivia Colman, too, is extraordinary. Her Queen Anne is stubborn and self-destructive, feeble, and eminently manipulable. Yet she is also witty, loving, and canny, making her sympathetic, rather than simply pathetic.
Though the actors' respective roles could easily devolve into familiar tropes, "The Favourite" resists such simplification. Moral ambiguity is rife in "The Favourite." If you're hoping to divide the three leads into "good guys" and "bad guys," you will be continually disappointed. Such explicit designations (and the gendered assumptions implicit therein) have no place in this film. Each main character is, at times, manipulative, trusting, duplicitous, and loyal. They are, in short, human. Cruelty and ambition often live cheek-by-jowl with kindness and friendship in the human heart. If all this friction has you eagerly anticipating a "cat-fight," then I bid you welcome to 2018, Archie Bunker, but you, too, shall leave the theater disgruntled. You will find conflict to spare in "The Favourite," but it is hardly a voyeuristic fantasyland. I know, I know, way too much talky-talky and not enough sexy-slappy. I get it. Now run along to the box office and see if they'll still let you swap your ticket for Robin Hood.
"The Favourite" defies cinematic tradition by surrounding three complex, nuanced female characters with one-dimensional men. The male supporting cast is neither uninteresting nor unlikeable, but their motivations tend to be simple, their personalities, caricatures. These men's foppish displays are entertaining, no doubt, but they do not captivate the attention like the exchanges between Anne, Sarah, and Abigail. Turnabout is fair play, and this story demands sophisticated interplay between its three feminine leads, while only requiring men for the occasional plot device. Never fear, my masculine brethren. No fewer than six male-driven films were released around the same week as "The Favourite". The feminist takeover of Hollywood with deviations like "speaking roles for women" remains in its infancy.
Helming this new-age feminist hellscape is Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, who deserves a great deal of credit for establishing the odd world of "The Favourite". Lanthimos' whole visual aesthetic is peculiar, with wide, fisheye lenses and odd, unexpected camera angles ("What if I put the camera under the table for this conversation?" I imagine him asking). In addition, Lanthimos does not like to use traditional film lighting. His exteriors rely on natural light, while his nighttime scenes give a real impression of being candle-lit, with hard shadows and dark corners. If Lanthimos wishes to unsettle the viewer with his aesthetic, he succeeds masterfully. Even during otherwise innocuous conversations, you may feel a creeping trepidation as your neck hairs stand on end. "The Favourite" isn't particularly off-putting or violent, but you will feel strangely uncomfortable, despite all the humor, until the credits roll.
Although "The Favourite" is thematically - and cinematically - dark, it is often also shockingly funny. The dialogue is snappy and well-tuned, and the actors' interplay with one another is perfectly coordinated. Dull, expository dialogue, usually wielded with all the subtlety of a self-important sledgehammer in historical dramas, here flits across the screen like a hummingbird, lingers briefly, and is gone again. Instead, a droll sort of whimsy prevails. At times, laughter felt wrenched from the audience, as we surprised ourselves with our own snorts of glee. Humor is rarely so cathartic as when your fingernails are digging grooves into your palms. It would be a mistake to classify "The Favourite" as a "comedy," I think, but for all its gloom, it is hardly grim. Complexity necessitates a balance between darkness and light; between tragedy and comedy. "The Favourite" deftly manages that tension better than most films.
"The Favourite" is not a movie for everyone. It will be too "much" for some, too weird for others, and, sadly, too woman-centric for many (one does not expect a tweet from our dear president, for instance, extolling his love for this film). Nevertheless, "The Favourite" is brilliant. The writing is witty, the sets are lavish, and the acting is exceptional. It is a symphony of odd, eccentric anachronisms that will leave you tearing through a dictionary for the right words to describe it, always coming up a bit short.