Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest production, “The Favourite,” stars Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz in a theorized tale of Queen Anne during her rule in early 18th century England. A more brief summary of the movie describes the formation of a feud between two ladies (female personal assistants to the court) over the attention and substantiate control of Queen Anne.
One thing to always keep in mind is that this movie is a black comedy, which deals with disturbing or distressing tragedies or topics in a humorous way. Another thing to keep in mind before watching “The Favourite” is that a dark sense of humor doesn’t constitute having the stomach to handle what is about to be presented on screen. Multiple scenes of extreme vulgarity and violence- especially to small animals- are occurrent themes brought to a light with the genre title of black comedy. In another summary, you will laugh your ass off on the inside, but your skin will become pale and sickly after the movie’s final moments of existential terror.
The rest of this review may contain minor spoilers for “The Favourite.” With that said, I believe I can understand why Olivia Colman, who plays Queen Anne, won best performance at the Oscars. Every scene acted out in the chaotic, hysterical tone the movie was going for. Being a whiny, and in most cases, unqualified royal leader, her current lady, Lady Sarah, played by Rachel Weisz, must be Queen Anne’s voice of reason and rationale. Sarah, however, has her own political agenda that must be maneuvered around Queen Anne’s antics and her underlings’ own agendas in opposition. Sarah appears to have the upper hand over her oblivious superior when the unexpected arrives covered in mud.
Abigail, a former lady, is pushed off her carriage into a puddle of mud in front of the castle, awaiting her assignment under a new kingdom after Abigail’s father burned up in flames along with his own. She stumbles into Lady Sarah, where the rivalry between the two forms.
Every aspect of the movie, from the acting chops on all three lead actresses to brilliant choreography work using centered, rotating cameras and an occasional fisheye lens, the movie dances, sounds, and tells its tale in a coherent fashion about chronic chaos that ensues when a high-spending political figure grows old and unwary. It was a proud moment to see someone like Olivia Colman go from minor roles in obscure films to an oscar win for best performance. All of the actresses are at their nastiest in the film, but Colman takes the cake and eats it too, as she should.
Other aspects I appreciated greatly of the film were its historic accuracy of the setting and certain character decisions. The actresses are at their meanest in the characters’ attempts at manipulation. One scene in particular was as brutal in execution by Rachel Weisz as it almost was the literal execution for Lady Abigail when out of the blue during a shooting practice, Lady Sarah turns her gun to Lady Abigail and fires. Abigail clenching her chest almost gave me the impression she was unaware of the scene, meaning Emma Stone did a fantastic job reacting to a false gunshot.
If I mentioned every enjoyable aspect this movie had to offer, the review would be three times as long and ruin all the surprises awaiting in the film, “The Favourite.” It’s an A+ movie with an all-star cast perfectly portraying the snippy, cocky, and downright disturbing behaviour of their script. It may be best to watch alone, as the person you go with might not have the guts to watch the whole thing.
