Yesteryear was just as messed up

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2019)

Even through I ended up really enjoying this film I was a little bit disappointed in it. It isn't quite as bold as I was expecting. It is more intellectualized than I was expecting as well. It remind me more of All About Eve than Tom Jones, and I was expecting the latter. Nonetheless, the film is extremely entertaining. It is a funny combination of palace intrigue, social satire and genre deconstruction. It is certainly the most vulgar costume drama I have seen and it really drives home the point that the past was just as ugly as today. Queen Anne somewhat does remind you of a Trumpian figure with her vanity, self-delusion and preening need for attention. Colman really is a force in this film and she makes Queen Anne tragicomic that it is too painful not to laugh.
The best part of the film, to me however, is Hoult. Pretty much everything out of his mouth is comedic goal. He also delivers an early barbed insult in the perfect, just perfect manner for the tone of the film. It is so important for the film that the line generates laughs and it does. The screenplay, for all its wit, would have died if not for Hoult in that early scene.
I think my disappointment stems from the direction/technical aspects. They are all too beautifully crafted and while it works on an ironic level I would prefer more of the washed out look used in Tom Jones. While parts of them are pushed to an absurd degree they are too conventional for this script. The script is a send up of this sort of story and the visuals are too pristine for it. It works, overall, but a more daring film with less polished visuals would have been better.
Very good film through. 10/10