Viewers pay to be reprimanded for enjoying the first two-thirds of the film

Rating: 7/10 (26 December 2018)

As I left the theater I realized I had just been punished in the end by the director/writers of "The Favourite" for earlier laughing at/with their own depictions of royalty and royalty wannabes squabbling and performing cruel acts on each other in their one-up efforts. The ending section is clearly meant to throw viewers into a last-minute depression and sadness for the awfulness of it all after about 2 hours of romping in the sometimes darkly silly childishness of human behavior. It didn't sit well with me, but it will with some others, and that's fine. It's a "life lesson" film, then, disguised as a darkly comic romp (trailers for the film are particularly deceptive in making it seem a full-on comedy). Again, fine, but I'd learned this lesson long ago in life, and didn't enjoy the fact I'd spent money to eventually be preached to, in a quietly withering way, that I should feel bad for laughing earlier. The film is admittedly well-made and acted, but it's ultimately a true downer, and depressing as hell.