★★★★★

22 November 2018

A movie review of ​THE FAVOURITE.

Seen at the London Film Festival 2018. (For more information, click here.)

By Hemanth Kissoon

“We’ll make a killer of you yet,” Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz)
 
What a period comedy! Wit pours from every pore. Sublime and masterfully crafted. The film includes an emotional kick, among the laugh-out-loud courtly schemes of influence and power. So much of the genre feels like tired awards season fodder that will be forgotten six months later. THE FAVOURITE on the other hand is effervescent. Director Yorgos Lanthimos has surpassed his previous pinnacle of DOGTOOTH (2009). That is some doing.
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​“As it turns out, I am capable of much unpleasantness,” states Abigail (Emma Stone). So is everyone in the film, regardless of station. The degree of unpleasantness relates to ambitious drive and cunning. The moment there is a story about monarchy and power, television opus ‘Game of Thrones’ is compared to. THE FAVOURITE sidesteps any competition the moment the audience witnesses the gentry racing ducks. You don’t see that in Westeros. Refreshing to see two ladies in charge (whatever the era). If one is being facetious, Lady Sarah is the Dick Cheney to Queen Anne’s George W. Bush.
 
Three leads. They all drive the plot forward. Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is erratic and unpredictable. Only one has her ear and the same who pulls the strings. Lady Sarah is a brainy, no-nonsense politico. Then comes along Abigail. The interloper. Fallen on hard times, Abigail was once a lady, but was lost in a game of cards by her father, who also lost the family fortune. Even though a cousin of Lady Sarah, Abigail is now a servant and looking to rise up again. She has a formidable array of wits and wit.
 
You know this is not ‘The Crown’ with Claire Foy, when within the first 10 minutes we witness a guy jerking off in a carriage. The c-word is also used liberally. There are so many standout scenes you cannot believe the skill on display, e.g.:
- Lady Sarah and Masham (Joe Alwyn) dancing at a ball. What is their style? Anachronistic New Romantic? Whatever, I want to learn it.
- Harley (Nicholas Hoult). Hoult takes his acting to a new level. He is an absolute hoot.
- Abigail and Masham flirting, from verbal sparring to physical sparring.
- Etc. etc.

​The atmosphere is far from one note. Queen Anne lost 17 children. The audience can conceivably understand how perpetual grief has hastened her ill health, both physical and of the psyche. Having supreme power, where you both are coddled and have to make seismic decisions, must cause a unique mental pressure cooker. Beneath the japes, there are serious issues and melancholy. Servants are issued with corporal punishment. Daughters are chattel. Destitute women are forced into sex work. Warmongering as the perpetual bane of a nation and its targets. Lady Sarah and her party want it. Harley and his opposition party do not. The two are at perpetual loggerheads and do not mince the invectives directed at the other. The Whig party verses the Tories. Who would have thought in this current age of cruel austerity in the U.K., the Tories would be the slightly less evil political party in a movie?
 
Like Queen Anne’s diet, THE FAVOURITE is rich. A cast already ably evincing talent in abundance, here, pull out the stoppers and go full guns (to mix metaphors). This combined with sharp dialogue, and the skill behind the curtain, makes for a dazzling experience. Stunningly shot. Eschewing the staid stateliness of depicting the aristocratic past. The film feels like Martin Scorsese’s MEAN STREETS (1973). THE FAVOURITE is full to the rafters with zest. Looking at genre with a fresh eye, incongruity in cinema is welcome. Camerawork and choice of lenses and lighting seize audience attention.
 
As the tone shifts, the film robs us of an unalloyed smile as the credits roll. The cheeky scamps!