The Favourite

Sometimes you go into a movie expecting one thing and getting another. But a good critic should not review the movie they wanted to see or thought they were going to see. So I had to stew a while before reaching some conclusions about The Favourite.

The trailer (and this is why I avoid trailers when I can) made it look like a romp, something like The Lion in Winter--a historical comedy full of witticisms. The Favourite does have some good lines, but is definitely not a comedy, and instead is a movie about the bonds, both connected and severed, between women, that just happens to take place in the early 18th century.

Set in England during the reign of Queen Ann, who is today viewed with a lot of pathos because she had 17 pregnancies yet no heirs (one son did live to be a teenager, but died, the rest were stillborn or died as infants), The Favourite is about the jockeying between two women, cousins, for the queen's favor. Sarah Churchill, Lady Marlborough (who is a direct ancestor of of both Winston and Princess Diana, and played by Rachel Weisz) runs the ship, basically telling Ann what to do. Ann (Olivia Colman), is something of a fright, a woman teetering on the edge of madness, with terrible health problems. She has gout, her legs are riddled with ulcers, and later she will have a stroke. She mostly plays with her seventeen rabbits, one for each child that she has lost.

Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) comes to the palace with the hope of getting a job. She is Weisz's cousin, but her father's profligate ways has reduced her to a servant. "When I was fifteen my father lost me in a card game," she tells Weisz, to a German who had a thin cock. Weisz pities her a gives her a job as a scullery maid.

But Stone has higher aspirations. She gains the Queen's attention by using herbal medicine to soothe her ulcers. Weisz is rigid and cold and tells Colman the truth, no matter how upsetting. But Colman responds to Stone's gentler, fuzzier companionship, and soon Weisz is jealous.

The two women will play a cat and mouse game of palace intrigue as they seek Colman's favor, and thrown into the mix are politicians, notably Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford (Nicholas Hoult), a Whig who wants to sue for peace with the French (they are in the midst of the Spanish War of Succession) and Godolphin (James Smith) a Tory. Harley uses Stone to get Colman to agree to his wishes, which sends Weisz into a fury.

Much of this is historically true, as I read last night on Wikipedia. Some of it is conjecture, I suppose, such as the romantic relationship between Colman and Weisz, and Stone using her own sexual wiles (Weisz is most upset upon coming across Stone sleeping naked in Colman's bed). Colman will not get rid of stone because "I like it when she puts her tongue in me."

While there are many clever lines and a few pratfalls, The Favourite has a patina of melancholy. Ann is an extremely unhappy person, tugged at by opposing forces, while Weisz and Stone are both unpleasant. The ending scene, which I will not spoil here, is both powerful and disturbing, unlike the jolly laughter of Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter. 

The Favourite was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, in his most accessible film yet. He did not write this script, instead it was Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, but Lanthimos' touches are all over it. It's a classic example of an art-house director making a mainstream film. Likening it to a house, all the walls and ceilings and doors are there, but, but they are a little askew, with the toilet in the kitchen. I found the pacing of The Favourite to be just a bit off, with scenes lingering a beat too long, and many awkward transitions.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the film greatly, even if I didn't have a good time. The acting by the three leads is exquisite. Stone is a gifted comedian, and this is her nastiest character. A scene between her and her pursuer, Joe Alwyn, has her beating him up while he attempts to wrestle her to the ground in the forest. In order to gain sympathy from Colman, she bangs a book against her head until her nose bleeds. When a plot of hers goes awry, she storms down a hallway saying, "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Weisz is no less entertaining. In a scene where she wakes up in a brothel with many wounds, (you have to see the film to find out why) she reacts coolly as a cucumber. You can see the wheels turning in her head as she plots and schemes, and when she is rebuffed she is genuinely saddened, as she and Colman were childhood girlfriends.

I think the best performance is by Colman, who is the apex of the triangle. At times the "Off with her head!" stuff (she actually says that line) is a little extreme, but it's the mysterious moments that set her apart. Twice, without explanation, she is enjoying music but then angrily asks it to be stopped. She enjoys watching lobsters race each other (I found that a funny inside joke, given Lathimos' film The Lobster) and she hobbles around like an old woman, though she was in her forties at the time. Colman is heartbreaking as a woman who has lost everyone she has ever loved.

As you would expect with this kind of film, the costumes and art direction are superb (the wigs and costumes of the men make me glad I didn't live then). The music, which uses period pieces but in a strange way (a few times we just hear the sawing of a violin interrupted by a piano plinking) is distinctive without being overbearing. The cinematography by Robbie Ryan is wonderful, particularly a scene in a darkened library where Stone hides and discovers Weisz's secret.

The Favourite is an excellent film, just not the laugh riot I was expecting.