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| Courtesy of Fox Searchlight |
The plot is deceptively simple: in the early 18th century, England is at war with the French. Ordinary townspeople are on the verge of rioting because they’re footing the bill, but the frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is clueless about their anger because her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) is secretly running the country behind her back.
Their relationship is soon complicated by the arrival of a new servant named Abigail (Emma Stone), to whom the Queen quickly takes a liking. Abigail grows to enjoy this connection to power and finds ways to get even closer to the throne while Sarah, feeling threatened, plots to get back into the Queen’s good graces.
Granted, The Favourite still has plenty of wigs, frilly dresses and corsets (seriously, Sandy Powell’s costume design and Fiona Crombie’s production design are exquisite). It’s also a comedy of manners that highlights the ridiculousness of aristocracy and its obsession with wealth and social standing.
But the film has a remarkably modern sensibility – the characters employ modern language (frequently of the four-letter variety) – and it’s replete with vulgar, brutal hilarity. The screenplay (credited to Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara) is razor sharp, full of terrible people with awful motives spouting delightfully mean-spirited insults.
Of course, it helps that those lines are delivered by outstanding performers. Colman has been working steadily for almost two decades, but she’s never had a big breakout role. Until now, that is.
As Queen Anne, she’s funny, devious and heartbreaking in equal measure, often in the same scene. That’s especially true in a monologue she delivers to Abigail, which reveals the origin of her obsession with rabbits. She demonstrates a bewildering ability to modulate her performance almost instantly. I’m not great at Oscar prognosticating, but I would imagine she’s got a strong chance of winning Best Actress.
Weisz and Stone are just as compelling (although I’m afraid they’ll cancel each other out since they’re both practically guaranteed Best Supporting Actress nominations), demonstrating huge range and adding depth and complexity to characters who could’ve easily come off as cartoonish in the wrong hands. What’s more, their continually shifting motives, anxieties and goals means that the viewer’s allegiance shifts every few scenes.
While the women are garnering most of the raves from critics (as they should), it would be criminal to overlook Nicholas Hoult’s brilliant, hysterical work. He’s clearly having the time of his life playing a politician who claims to represent the common people but is only looking out for himself. As Abigail grows closer to the Queen, his character jumps at the opportunity to use her to gain favor with the ruler and rise above his station.
He’s also responsible for one of the film’s funniest moments. I’d never dream of spoiling it, but his petty reaction to Abigail’s denial of his business proposal caused me to laugh so hard that I started coughing. It’s a stellar bit of physical comedy that comes out of nowhere and made me want to applaud.
Granted, as you might’ve guessed by now, The Favourite isn’t designed to appeal to everyone. It’s a mean story full of terrible people. Although you end up rooting for several of them throughout and they might appear sympathetic for a scene or two, that goodwill quickly evaporates when a new scheme or an opportunity to gain more power reveals itself.
The Favourite is also not for the easily offended; if rough language and strong sexual content are deal-breakers for you, it’s probably best to sit this one out. However, if you don’t mind hanging out with morally compromised people who also happen to be wildly entertaining, you’re in for one of the year’s best films.
Here’s a little sneak preview: it made my Top 10 list that you’ll read in a few weeks. What’s more, the Atlanta Film Critics Circle (of which I’m a proud member) recently voted it their number one film of 2018. In addition, they named Olivia Colman as Best Lead Actress, Emma Stone as Best Supporting Actress, also awarding the film Best Ensemble Cast and Best Screenplay. It’s safe to say we liked it a lot.
I can’t promise you’ll enjoy it as much as we did, but it’s unquestionably a creative, unique story that isn’t a sequel, reboot, or adapted from a board game or a cereal box. That’s exceedingly rare, so I highly recommend giving it a shot – especially since you’re going to hear about it a lot between now and the Oscars in February.
The Favourite is rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language. Now playing in limited release and expanding throughout awards season.)
Grade: A
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