The Favourite

by Deborah Davis & Tony McNamara

Element Pictures

This is the  story of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and the power struggles between two women who sought to use their relationship with the Queen to further their own aims. It’s a darkly FUNNY movie with a love triangle, with a dash of political intrigue. The main story is the push and pull between these three women, and it’s seriously amazing.

This is based on real events…well, more like it’s based on real relationships. Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs, was a hot mess by the end of her reign, with a pile of health problems and being in a weird position of being ordained by God but still needing to get men to do what she wants. Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, was a very close companion and confidant to Anne, and held the position of Mistress of the Robes and Keeper of the Privy Purse. Sarah’s cousin, Abigail Hill, was taken in by Sarah, and eventually supplanted her as the Queen’s Right Hand Woman. (The wiki deep dives are FASCINATING.)

In the movie, England is at war with France (as they often are), and Sarah (Rachel Weisz) is using her position as Anne’s BFF to influence Anne’s decisions, much to the dismay and annoyance of men who run the government. Her cousin, Abigail (Emma Stone), comes to Sarah’s household looking for employment after her father’s financial ruin, and worms her way up from scullery maid to a place at Anne’s side, and eventually replaces Sarah as Anne’s favourite.

One of the types of stories I really enjoy is “how people learn to be who they are.” Throughout the movie, Abigail has a talent for putting herself in an advantageous position, but she also actively learns from Sarah how to manage the intrigues of court. It’s fun watching her get more and more deft at manipulation, not only manipulating Anne’s childishness, but also annoying men who are trying to manipulate her. Emma Stone does a lot with micro-expressions that convey SO much with a mere twitch of her eyes. It’s a DELIGHTFUL performance.

Rachel Weisz has been one of my favorite actresses since The Mummy, and she is positively glowing here. Sarah is a character that does love Anne, but she has NO hesitation at using Anne’s love to further her own agenda. She would have been a hell of politician in her own right, but since she couldn’t be, she used the tools she had to great effect.

The difference between Sarah and Abigail is that Sarah’s agenda is to control the destiny of Great Britain, and Abigail’s agenda is controlling the destiny of herself. There’s a point where Sarah tells Abigail that they are playing very different games, but Abigail doesn’t understand that.

But the real star here, the real MVP, is Olivia Coleman as Anne. Anne isn’t a well known monarch, and her story is pretty sad. She was pregnant 17 times, and had no surviving children, and by the end of her life had a huge number of health problems. Coleman gives us a woman who is in a lot of pain, both mental and physical, and plays her as a childish, often selfish, rather spoiled woman. But there’s a sense of fun and silliness that comes through when appropriate. Coleman is SO good and expect to see her name when Oscar nominations come out. She does so much and with such gusto. She’s amazing, really.

There are some men in this movie, too. They’re not that important.

The style of this is really interesting. It’s mostly done with natural light, which makes the nighttime scenes, lit only by candles and fire, fascinating and something I haven’t seen done to this extent. Some of the daytime scenes with sunlight are almost overexposed looking, and its honestly glorious. They used Hatfield House as the primary location, to AMAZING effect, and then Sandy Powell, the costume designer (You’ve seen her work in Cinderella, Carol, and The Young Victoria) used accurate cuts and silhouettes with modern fabrics, and a lot of black and white for the aristocratic characters. There is also a hilariously, ridiculously modern partner dance that’s…reader, I laughed.

I know what you’re wondering, though.

IS THIS A LOVE TRIANGLE? DO THEY FUCK?

This is honestly unlike any other historical movie I’ve ever seen. First, the whole thing is centered around the relationships of women, and their relationships with each other and how they get and manage power. It lets all these women be complex, three dimensional humans that are by turn hilarious and terrifying. It’s an era that’s very rarely explored. All three main roles are given a lot of room to really get into the meat of the characters.

Moreover, this is the type of film that is very much worth the trouble of seeing in a theatre. First, the lighting and the framing of the shots are best appreciated on a large screen – so many massive spaces with tiny little people moving around inside them. Plus there’s the delight of seeing some unexpectedly funny moments with a crowd that laughs with you.

While this review was in progress, Sarah received an email from Ariella, who asked if we were going to cover The Favourite, saying, “I just saw it and my brain is SINGING with how gleefully nasty and powerful and QUEER the women in the film are….”

She is not wrong. If this sounds like your cuppa, get yourself to the theatre. Honestly, it’s my favorite movie of the year so far.