La favorita

In the court of British Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), Lady Churchill (Rachel Weisz) and her lowly cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) conduct a battle of wits to become the ailing Queen's favorite, ensuring wealth, prestige and power.

I enjoyed the other movies directed by Lanthimos that I've seen (Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer), but he strikes new ground here, turning in his most accessible movie to date and perhaps his most polished. There are shades of Kubrick in the editing and cinematography, both of which are excellent. The use of natural light and distorted lenses is visually interesting. The costumes are also top notch, as one would expect from a period piece.

The performances are the main event, with all three women turning in at or near career bests. Colman won the Best Actress Oscar, but her's is the most in line with a supporting turn, as the film is told from the points-of-view of Weisz and Stone. Their increasingly nasty one upmanship is hilarious. Lanthimos throws in some anachronistic touches (the dance scene is very amusing), the dialogue is sharp as a dagger, and the film isn't afraid to go grotesque. Recommended.

English Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is fighting a war in France. Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) is her favorite courtesan and is the power behind the throne. Her cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives looking for a job after her family had fallen in status. Sarah looks down upon her and sends her to be a maid. She is being whipped when Sarah suddenly needs her to alleviates the Queen's gout pains. Leader of the opposition, Mr. Harley (Nicholas Hoult), is pushing for an immediate peace treaty while Sarah uses her power over the Queen to raise taxes to continue the war led by her husband at the front.

This is a wonderful competition of female relationships. It is deliciously passive-aggressive. All three performances are amazing. The visual style is impeccable. It is a movie of singular vision and great actors.

The Favourite was not what I expected. This isn't classic Yorgos Lanthimos, this is a whole new, more whimsical Yorgos Lanthimos, approached parallel to his usual sinister, vexing, and twisted spirit. In full hindsight, this more comedic and less calamitous manner ended with me completely and whole-heartedly digging it. And when I say, The Favourite is more cheer and juvenile than his previous work, I'm not inferring that Lanthimos loses his infamous psychologically poignant gift in this, I'm just inferring that it's done in a much more subtle way, hidden by cynical buffoonery.

At the time being, I would claim that this isn't my favorite-sorry-favourite of Lanthimos's filmography-The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer still hold that spot dearly to my heart-but I would doubtlessly claim that The Favourite is by a long-shot, Lanthimos's most gratifying and crowd-pleasing film. I did not expect to had had such a blast with this movie. Not only is it funny as hell, but the comradery and rivalry between Emma Stone's character and Rachel Weisz's character-both who by the way, give the most dexterous performances of this entire year-was just too much fun to take in. And Olivia Colman's performance as the queen...comical perfection.

The atmospherical tone of this movie also is one of the many aspects that won me over. It reputed like an old-fashioned, 1-on-1, battle of the minds movie, just with touches of Lanthimos's typical synthetic stylizations. It's the cherry on the top of this shrewd satire.

The Favourite might not be as poetically relevant to today's society like The Lobster, or as tramuatizingly stirring like The Killing of a Sacred Deer, but it's a playful piece of mental spectacle that is oddly bone-crushing, yet, pleasing, all at once. Loved nearly every second of it. Bravo, once again Sir Lanthimos. (Verdict: A)

The awards and critical reception for this film made it a rather mainstream success, despite it coming from the maker of such odd films as The Lobster. The period setting, the class of performers, and the awards though make it seem accessible and 'normal' only for it to quickly set out its stall as not being that. Essentially it is the fictional story of Queen Anne and her dear 'friend' Lady Sarah, between whom a new maid comes, setting off a frosty power struggle for the ear of the ailing Queen. On its face it seems like a straightforward period drama, but the delivery makes it more than this.

Much has been written by cleverer people on the selection of lens for shooting, the use of natural light, the fruity nature of the script for the period, all of it true and all of it making the film feel off-kilter from what would be expected. It does this in a way that feels odd but yet is still easy to go with and accessible - as opposed to being deliberately hard to penetrate. Certainly the look of the film keeps throwing me, and I wasn't a fan of the wide lens when it was used, but it did have the effect of making the scenes draw me in by virtue of how odd it was to find that look in a period film. In terms of narrative, it is lively with its fruity language and incident, as well as the twists and turns of the plot itself. This is all well delivered by the lead three actresses, who embrace the teeth of it as much as they do the absurdity of some of it.

All told it is a surprising film in the way that it feels odd and off-kilter in many ways, but yet produces a sharp drama with wit and teeth throughout.

If The Favourite had music by Michael Nyman. I would had said that it was directed by Peter Greenaway. I do think Greenaway was a big influence with the style of the film, as well as the Oscar winning Tom Jones that lent it some naughtiness.

Director Yorgos Lanthimos adds a rich period setting and visual flourishes. He keeps his camera moving and has lot of fisheye views.

Underneath it all is a power play between three women in 18th Century England. Two of them vie to be Queen Anne's favourite even if this means massaging more than her legs.

Abigail (Emma Stone) has fallen on hard times. She arrives at Court hoping for employment from her cousin, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz.) She is the Queen's trusted adviser, lady in waiting, confidante and even lover.

Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is ill. She has gout, she is mentally unstable. She lost 17 children and she has 17 rabbits that she plays with. Governing the country is something she finds difficult especially as Britain is at war with France.

Abigail wants to ingratiate herself with Queen Anne and climb the greasy pole to secure her position. Over time Abigail and Lady Sarah fight, dirtily to be the Queen's favourite.

The Favourite is a crude, grimy, seedy, bawdy drama in tone and language. Lanthimos is certainly not interested in showing a wholesome chocolate box portrait of 18th century life.

This is a sumptuous looking costume drama about fragile cruel people and egos. People who are desperate to get to the top and remain there.

The film unravels in the second half and gets bogged down. At the end Abigail may not be quiet in control as she thinks, I did think the ending was weak and disappointing.