A bizarre and often unenjoyable parody of a period film

Rating: 3/10 (23 December 2018)

The cinematography and acting in The Favourite were not its downfall. It was the story itself that made me want to walk out of the movie almost forty minutes early.
I take this movie as a parody of historic period films. Everything is purposefully over the top and criticizes the ridiculous and self-indulgent ways of royal families in Europe. Since the majority of the movie takes place within Queen Anne's castle, the viewer feels claustrophobic and ill at ease from the setting alone. Queen Anne's palace is beautiful, but just as strange and unwelcoming as she is. I liked how the director created an immerse atmosphere through the scenery, although costumes were not realistic for the time era.
However, the plot completely bored me and I was relieved when the credits rolled. 45 minutes in, the movie became horribly formulaic: Queen Anne will have an attack of gout, one of the two lead actresses will sneak into her room, tend to her legs and then have sex with her to score brownie points. At LEAST thirty minutes or more of the film could have been cut.
Nicholas Hoult was my lifeline in the film, since his portrayal of a b#tchy nobleman was completely spot-on and offered some relief from the snoozefest lesbian love triangle. This could have been such an interesting story, but I was totally put off by the odd pacing, scenes of Queen Anne eating and vomiting and then...eating some more, with no real explanation as to explain why the Queen is an absolute nutter, and a mind numbing ending that tried so hard to emulate an art flick that it was almost painful to watch. I have a feeling the director had no idea how to end the story, so he settled on something abstract to leave it up to the viewers' imagination: or, the easy way out.
The most interesting character in the entire movie is Queen Anne, but it felt like she was a plot device for Emma Stone to get her way rather than a fully fleshed out character.