A classic case of overplaying one's hand

Rating: 9/10 (10 March 2019)

After having seen and become a fan of the very first series on Masterpiece Theater The First Churchills, I was anxious to see the different slant The Favourite
had on what is an enlargement of the last years of that story. As The First
Churchills was based on Winston Churchill's biography of his ancestor The Duke
of Marlborough it was as expected slanted toward Sarah Jennings Churchill.
Accounts other than Churchill's cast Sarah as a shrew. As you see in the First
Churchills, Sarah and Anne grew up together as playmates and were the most
intimate of friends since puberty. When they were apart they wrote letters and
gave each other pen names for their letters. Anne was Mrs. Morley and Sarah
was Mrs. Freeman. The Duke of Marlborough was a great military commander, but no doubt his wife's influence with first Princess Anne when
she was in line for succession and when she became Queen in 1702 the Marlboroughs were riding high.
The First Churchills had Margaret Tyzack as Anne who over the course of the
series grew from an eager young princess to a rather dowdy queen. Olivia
Colman's portrayal of Anne is of a woman who has nothing really left but the
throne. This woman had several pregnancies from her husband, the longest
surviving of their children who wasn't stillborn lived to be 9. Her husband a
prince from Denmark also died.
By the time this all takes place Anne who patiently put up with Sarah Churchill's constant begging of favors and trying to influence policy was ripe
for a new favorite. And in The Favourite Sarah herself introduces her own
downfall into Anne's court with her own cousin Abigail Hill. It was a classic
case of overplaying one's hand.
The three actresses who play Anne, Sarah, and Abigail dominate this film.
Olivia Colman won the film's only Oscar for Best Actress playing Queen Anne
and she is dowdy, tired, mercurial and plain tired and world weary all at once.
Quite a few people died before she who never expected to be queen was. By
all accounts she was a nice woman before being overwhelmed with the
responsibility's of the throne. There's also more than a hint of a lesbian relationship with Anne and Sarah. Getting all those emotions out and then
some is the hallmark of a great performance.
Rachel Weisz plays Sarah who like Susan Hampshire in The First Churchills just
never knew when to quit. Emma Stone as Abigail knew exactly when to quit.
She made a good marriage to Sam Masham who became a Baron. When Anne
died, Abigail knew it was time to gracefully bow it. She lived quietly in the
countryside and died in 1734. Sarah way outlived both Anne and Abigail
dying 1748. Her saved correspondence provide a lively account of her era
written from Sarah's point of view.
The Favourite's only Oscar was for Olivia Colman. Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone both got Supporting Actress nominations and the film also was nominated for Best Picture and a flock of other awards.
I really recommend seeing this and then getting a copy of The First Churchills.
Or you might read Winston Churchill's award winning biography of the Duke
to get Sarah's side in that magnificent Churchillian prose.