Unredeeming Failure

Rating: 5/10 (29 December 2018)

I should begin with the fact that I love period pieces and historical dramas (or dramedies) - even if these take liberties. I also am a big fan of dark comedy (e.g., Fargo).
But, this film was pure pretentiousness on the part of Lanthimos as it had little comedy and, more importantly, zero redeeming characters. Even a broken, flawed character who had some redeeming value would have made the film more tolerable. One kept looking for someone to root for - even if that ended in a tragic outcome it would have been better. I found none.
The five stars go for the three main actresses - Colman, Weisz, and Stone. They were exceptional. Stone in particular.
The film was grounded in the historical relationship between Queen Anne (who reigned from 1701 until her death in 1714) and her close but eventually strained friendship with Lady Sarah (Weisz). As far as the bare bones of the story went, it was accurate. However, there was no effort to find any positive quality for these characters. They were all purely selfish and evil.
I did find first 45 minutes or so were quite interesting and enjoyable wondering where things were going. But, unfortunately, the film just does not bring a single positive value.
Even in the Trump administration one can find a few altruistic people. Lanthimos wrote none into the story. Too bad. It was neither fun, humorous (except in one or two scenes), nor redeemable. A waste of time and money from my perspective.