Acid Wit is Not Enough to Save This Slow-Burner

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2019)

"The Favourite" has to be one of the most overrated films of 2018. The filmmakers take the relatively little-known reign of Queen Anne and deconstruct the Queen and her court into a post-modern pastiche of proto-feminist clichÃ©s.
The most troubling aspect of the film was the self-conscious attempt to distort history without any clear purpose other than a mordant humor evolving out of unpleasant characters and situations. It was unclear why John Churchill, the First Duke of Marlborough would be brought down from his rightful heroic place in history to a cuckold, whose military exploits are completely misrepresented in the film.
It was clear that the goal of the filmmakers was to focus on the three women characters of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough; Queen Anne; and Abigail Hill, Sarah's impoverished cousin. It is Abigail who becomes the catalyst for the film's action in her capacity as a devious social climber. More than a survivor, she is a plotter of palace intrigues whose amoral actions are entirely self-serving.
In the director's approach to this dramatic material, he devised a labored pace to the film that included long pauses and meandering scenes with characters wandering around the palace. It was an incongruous aesthetic choice to have the slow pacing along with the acerbic wit of the characters. The result was an Oscar Wilde play conceived in slow motion.
In grading this film, it is worth no more than three stars, one for each of the three central characters: the fussy Queen Anne, the scheming Sarah, and Abigail the survivor. But overall, it doesn't add up to a cohesive whole, and, sadly, it is difficult to genuinely care about the three dynamic characters.