The Favourite (2018) Review

"You look like a badger."

-Lady Sarah Churchill

It's 1708 and Great Britain is at war with France.  Although Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) rules the land, Lady Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz), the Queen's confident and adviser is the one who makes the Queen's decisions.  Sarah gives her cousin, Abigail Hill (Emma Stone), a job as a palace servant after the death of her father, but Abigail starts competing with Sarah to be the Queen's favorite and the cousins quickly find themselves in a battle for the Queen's affection.

What Works:

The Favourite is carried by the performances.  Stone gives a very out of character performance and she and Weisz have a wonderful dynamic.  I love watching the two of them face off.   Both of them are very well developed and have excellent motivation for their actions and they are extremely entertaining to watch.  It's difficult to tell who to root for, which is another aspect I enjoyed.  It was like watching an episode of Survivor.  I was just enjoying the scheming and plotting.  I didn't care who won (until the very end).

Nicholas Hoult is also fantastic as Robert Harley, a important member of Parliament who has a great dislike for Sarah and tries to use Abigail to his advantage.  He's a pompous jerk and very crude, but every time he was on screen, I couldn't help but smile at his absurd levels of villainy.

The star of the show is Olivia Colman who had better be nominated for every award ever.  She is phenomenal and it's probably the best performance I've seen all year.  Queen Anne has a wonderful arc and is a fantastic character.  She is extremely ill and seems to have no desire to govern her kingdom.  Her relationships with Sarah and Abigail are fascinating to watch as we learn more about the Queen.

The look of the film is unusual and fantastic.  There are lot of shots that have a fish-eye quality to them, which gives the film a very interesting look.  The cinematography is memorable to say the least.

Finally, this film caught me by surprise in several ways.  First off, it's very raunchy and all of the characters have foul mouths and use very sexually explicit dialogue.  When one thinks of the 1700's, I think most of us have a romanticized idea of what it was like, but The Favourite shows off the raunchy side of this time period.  There is also a key plot point of the film that is not revealed in the trailer and I won't reveal it here.  It adds another layer to the film and makes it even more interesting.  I certainly didn't see it coming, but it made me enjoy the film even more.

What Sucks:

The Favourite doesn't perfectly stick the landing.  The end of the film drags a bit and gets very weird with the final shot.  The villain of the movie doesn't really get a satisfying comeuppance either. Having seen director Yorgos Lanthimos' film The Lobster, I think we were lucky to get an ending as good as it was, but it certainly could have been stronger.

Verdict:

The Favourite is an odd movie with unexpected raunchiness, fantastic performances, an engaging story, and interesting cinematography.  If Colman doesn't win some awards it will be a crime against humanity.  The ending could have been stronger, but this film has absolutely got it going on. 

 9/10: Great