Lanthimos' baroque royal menage a trois dark comedy

Rating: Null/10 (11 December 2018)

Yorgos Lanthimos' THE FAVOURITE is a mordant menage a trois film about royalty. 18th century Queen Anne (Olivia Coleman) is portrayed as a doddering ruler getting played by her attendant, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz). A new servant has arrived at the palace, Abigail (Emma Stone), and she too learns to use her whiles to get her way with the weak Queen.
The screenplay by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara is full of biting wit, each character setting out to use their tongue like a rapier. The three ladies take - and dominate strongly = center stage, but the men in the cast including Nicholas Hoult, James Smith and Joe Alwyn hold their own in clear supporting parts. The script, while sharp at times, also lets itself fall prey to anachronisms and modern phrasing - certainly part of the construct, but a bit more polish could have made it less distracting (and, if one of the writers weren't a woman the frequent use of the "C" word would have stood out even more).
Lanthimos (working from other writers words for the first time since he debut feature), still manages to put his undeniably offbeat stamp on the project. The cinematography (on 35mm by Robbie Ryan) is baroque in its use of wide-angle lenses (too much so) and the compilation soundtrack combines both period classical music (Bach, Handel) as well as more contemporary experimental sounds by Messiaen and Ferrari. It's an, at times, uneasy blend - as Lanthimos, no doubt intended. The nod to Ingmar Bergman's PERSONNA is carried off with a deadpan Lanthimos twist.
While the actresses carry the tricky dialogue and directorial quirks with aplomb (hard to pick an...ahem...favourite among the trio), the movie eventually bogs down by the last couple of acts (the film is broken down into eight chapters). Once the three main characters are set, there aren't enough surprises to drive the drama. Even the acrid dialogue loses steam as it goes along. THE FAVOURITE is a well played film, but not fully realized.