The Favourite

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Yorgos Lanthimos' movies are not everyone's cup of tea. They are bizarre, shocking and more often than not, very unpleasant. While they always provide a great material for actors to deliver astounding performances I was thrilled to find out The Favourite is the most accessible of his movies. And that turned out to be a correct assessment - though also strange, this film is more a dark comedy than a crazy ride like The Lobster or The Killing of the Sacred Deer.

This time Lanthimos sets the tale (not written by him unlike his other films) in 18th century England on Queen's Anne's court. Lavish costumes, grand music and lovely production design create the stage and the complicated relations between the three main characters conjure the drama that is playing right in front of us.
While The Favourite is incredibly entertaining and fascinating I was surprised that the script was distractingly sub-par to everything else in the film. The problems with the script are all to do with the way the schemes and the intrigues are written. Up until the moment when Sarah drinks the tea it's all very clever and it makes sense but ever since that moment the characters of Abigail and Sarah - so far shown to be shrewd and careful - start making absolutely ridiculous decisions. What was Abigail's plan in poisoning Sarah? What if Sarah collapsed right then and there? How would Abigail explain it?

And then it only got worse. Once Sarah is back she doesn't reveal the truth to Anne, an information like that could have led to what Sarah wanted - the banishment of Abigail. But the nail to the coffin  is the whole letter situation. Instead of giving the letter to Godolphin to hand it over to the Queen personally, Sarah simply sends it. Why doesn't she suspect Abigail will read the letter? It's outrageously stupid plot maneuver.
Those things wouldn't stick out so much if everything else wouldn't be so well written. The character development is magnificent with us seeing every main character one way when the film begins and completely different one when it ends. We begin by seeing Sarah as heartless, power hungry and manipulative but in the end we see she really felt love and cared deeply about the Queen. We begin by seeing Anne as spoiled but in the end we understand her sorrow and her solitude and we feel badly for her.

I found Anne to be the most human character in the story. Abigail and Sarah, because of the scripts' shortcomings and ridiculous plot developments I mentioned above, become inconsistent caricatures, but Anne is consistent. Even with all her eccentricities and bizarre behavior, Anne is easy to see as simply a sad, lonely woman plagued by tragedy and trying to distract herself from it. Her anger and her loneliness make her lash out in violent ways that make her look petulant but you understand why she acts the way she does.
The most fascinating character though was Abigail. At the beginning we feel badly for her because of her history and we see her as innocent, helpful, sweet person. As Abigail spends more and more time on the court she begins to climb the power ladder using the increasingly deceptive and manipulative ways. And I was rooting for her - after all, she didn't want to end up in the gutter and it's only natural that any person would do whatever they had to avoid a situation like that. But then Abigail abuses that bunny....and that is were my understanding and sympathy has ended. But then the longer the ending went on, there was that sympathy again.

What makes Abigail so interesting is the question - was she always vicious or did she simply became that, corrupted by power? The bunny moment leads me to believe it was the former as I refuse to believe anyone other than a truly evil person would harm something so innocent. But we cannot know for sure and that makes her so great to watch.
The acting is all around wonderful. It was great to see James Smith who plays Glenn in my all time favourite series The Thick of it here. Nicholas Hoult does incredible job here and he steals every single scene he is in, being effortlessly funny and incredibly entertaining to watch. But the film belongs to the trio of the actresses.

Rachel Weisz is always very good and she delivers strong performance as Sarah. She is given some of the best lines in the film and her fierce character is great to watch. But it's Emma Stone who is very, very surprising. I always liked her but I never found her to have much range and I find her turn in La La Land to be vastly overrated, like everything else in that film. Here however she is truly incredible, making us constantly wonder about what Abigail is really like. She continuously fools us and characters in the movie, making it impossible to guess what she will do next.
Olivia Colman is a revelation as the Queen and delivers some of the most wonderful acting moments an actor can deliver - when she has no lines and the camera focuses on her face Colman wordlessly conveys so much. The most striking moment is her watching Sarah dance - her admiration turning to jealousy to sadness, to rage.

The tale ultimately turns out to be a tragedy - Sarah is left without love, Anne is left without companion and Abigail  is still forced to serve someone. Through incredibly long and uncomfortable ending Lanthimos makes us go from thinking Abigail got what she deserves to feeling sorry and even horrified for her. And that's quite remarkable.

93/100
The Favourite (119 min, UK, 2018)
Plot: In early 18th century England, a frail Queen Anne occupies the throne and her close friend, Lady Sarah, governs the country in her stead. When a new servant, Abigail, arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writers: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
Stars: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz