The Favourite, 2018.
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, Nicholas Hoult, Mark Gatiss, James Smith
SYNOPSIS:
It’s early 18th century England, and Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is suffering from a rather painful case of gout. In her absence as monarch, her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) is on hand to perform her personal and political duties. However, the arrival of Abigail (Emma Stone), a servant girl caked in mud, without a penny to her name, but with bundles of wit, begins charming her way into the royal chambers and threatening their status quo.
Yorgos Lanthimos continues his wicked streak with a royal class farce that features a triumvirate of award’s worthy performances. Continuing to pick at the scab of the darker wounds of society, The Favourite isn’t as bleak as The Lobster, or as cruel as The Killing of a Scared Deer, but a devilishly good comedy, one dripping with barbed retorts, all delivered in ratatattat style by a superb cast.
Essentially a three way bout, with a wonderful Nick Hoult performance dotted throughout, here playing a petulant Prime Minister in waiting, The Favourite asks you to pick your own, before it shoots out of the gate with mean spirited wit, and barely lets up. “Your father had charm to burn, and he did” – offers up Rachel Weisz’s despicable Lady Sarah while addressing Abigail, whose own father died in a fire. Ouch.
The war of words is spat back and forth between the main players, layered with double entendre and varying degrees of subtlety in put-downs, especially during the playful scenes of pigeon shooting between the two rivals vying for Queen Anne’s affections. They’re an unhinged, rather unlikeable duo, amongst what is to be honest, a cast of intolerable shits.
Emma Stone is sly charm and asides, with very little backstory beyond the fact that when she was 13 her father lost her in a card game. Because of this your early allegiance is with her, but Lanthimos study of power within the class system might have you switching before the battle is won. Her equal in the game is Weisz, who really is the cold black heart of the film, confidently striding corridors and giving literal lashings that match those delivered by her tongue. It’s such an enchanting performance, there’s no wonder Olivia Colman’s Monarch has such a tough choice to make.
As the subject of this game of thrones, Colman is magnificent as the childish ruler, but for all of her showy tantrums and funny outbursts, her immaturity and eccentric behaviour soon gives way to something quite unexpected. There’s a severe case of sadness in her madness, a loneliness and insecurity that drives her desire to choose a favourite, one which makes her Queen the most human and rounded element of the film.
As with all of Lanthimos’s work, the music is integral to the way the story works, so as well as a playful score befitting of a costume drama, The Favourite has a reoccurring eerie scratch that tips it into darkness, as characters skulk the corridors at night, or walk from a confrontation uttering profanities. It works perfectly with the way the film teeters in tone between light and dark.
A mad hatter’s tea party of a movie, but with more rabbits and a duck on a leash (you’ll see), The Favourite only falters when Lanthimos is asked to deliver a fanfare to trump the preceding ninety minutes of laughs, wit, and relevant social commentary, but can’t quite manage an entirely satisfying conclusion. This matters little though when he’s directing three career best performances from Weisz, Stone, and Colman, in what is arguably his most accessible film to date.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★ ★
Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter
