So this is one of the big ones. It's been sweeping up the awards and is heavily favored to win a bunch more on the 24th. I will say it's probably the most accessible of Lanthimos' films and boasts truly impressive performances from Colman, Weisz, and Stone.Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is nominally the ruler of Great Britain but most of the day-to-day work is done by her best friend and lover Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz). Sarah keeps the queen in check through a combination of tough love and genuine affection while blithely implementing the policies most favorable to her parliamentary party. However, when Sarah's impoverished cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) comes to work at the palace and catches the queen's eye, Sarah soon finds herself fighting a battle on two fronts. Abigail is pretty, clever, and ambitious, with an eye towards securing a better future for herself. Towards that end, she is ruthless in manipulating everyone around her.
Near the end of the film, during Sarah and Abigail's final confrontation, Sarah remarks that they have both been playing to win but at two completely different games. It's a great moment, probably my favorite in the film because it really highlights the differences between the two women. Sarah manipulates the queen to implement her own national policy based on her personal political beliefs. She is coming from a place of enormous privilege, wielding this power like she was born to it because she was. She was noble from birth, married up, and has been friends from childhood with the monarch. Abigail, who has known privilege and had it taken away through the actions of men, thinks of nothing further than autonomy. She doesn't care about national interests or Tories or Whigs. She is out for herself. Both women are looking to have independence of action in a world that keeps them constrained to subservience and both of them achieve it only through the subsuming of another woman, Anne. It's a fascinating dynamic that I don't think I've ever seen explored as thoroughly as here.
Yorgos Lanthimos is definitely an auteur. The deliberately awkward dance sequence is a hallmark of his, but unfortunately, so is animal abuse. Every film I've seen of his features at least one scene where an animal meets a violent end: the cat from Dogtooth, the dog from The Lobster. Actually, I think a bunch of animals die in The Lobster. I'm not suggesting he actually kills animals on screen, but it's disturbing and weirdly specific. In The Favourite, Sarah and Abigail bond over shooting gamebirds and Abigail smugly pins a rabbit under her shoe until it squeaks. I include this at the risk of mild spoilers because some people may need the warning before deciding whether or not to see this film.
The cinematography is marked by a conspicuous use of fisheye camera lenses which definitely add a surreal flair to what would otherwise be rather prosaic hallway shots. The editing is likewise dramatic, abruptly cutting to title cards breaking the film into chapters. Production design is stellar since they're filming in what amounts to the actual palaces and grounds of Queen Anne. The costumes are similarly striking, especially since they are limited to only black and white.
This is an extremely stylish film with compelling performances and a wicked sense of humor. It's not going to be for everyone but it's definitely a conversation starter.
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