A darkly comedic homage to All About Eve

Rating: 8/10 (2 February 2020)

Not an obvious story to put to screen, but a lot of credit here to this director. First and foremost, this isn't very accurate history so take it as fiction despite the real life characters, and the language & actions are very disputable.
Anyhow, we have a story set in early 18th Century England under Queen Anne, a Stuart monarch many even in England know very little about. Not exactly the most exciting monarch that country (or any of the British Isle countries) have had. So, we have really here a story that is a near homage to 'All About Eve' as we have a Queen who is partially disabled being twisted & controlled by here First Lady (Lady Sarah) but things take a turn when young Abigail comes onto the scene, with power & scheming one & all.
It's actually a very dark comedy, and very sexual (surprisingly so for a story of the era). It's paced wonderfully with lots of pompous hypocritical characters (so little has changed in poltics).
The real strength is the acting, the film is almost peerless. Rachel Weiss, Olivia Colman and Emma Stone are just perfect in their triangle of love, politics and scheming. Really this film does more for female acting promotion in film than any number of superhero movies. It's powerful showing the strength of the females controlling things, and the men alongside them almost passive trying their best by pleading with them to get their way. The parliamentarians stuck in a war situation so there is no compromise possible.
The film is excellent, and all the plaudits are well deserved. There are aspects that maybe could have been better handled, as the twisting of history leaves me a little uncomfortable, but by no means the worst offender in film history. Highly recommended to one and all.