The Favourite (2018)

(On Cable TV, September 2019) Just as I had given up on writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos after the exasperation of The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, here comes The Favourite to make me think that I may have a bit too quick to judge. Reinvigorating the historical genre through a lesbian love triangle, crude language, and fisheye lenses, this is a costume drama like few others, and it has the qualities of its flaws and vice versa. Very loosely adapted from history (in which, yes, there was a weak queen served by a close strong-willed confidante who was eventually replaced by a younger and more servile favourite—the rest is conjecture), The Favourite doesn’t play by the rules of traditional royal court dramas. Our three lead characters (all women—also something unusual) eventually become involved in a love triangle, with the two royal confidantes sparing no underhanded tricks to try to eliminate the other from the queen’s affections. The dialogues feel modern with copious use of expletives, and the visual style uses aggressively wide-angle lenses to isolate the characters in the middle of immense rooms and landscapes. It’s definitely a deliberate aesthetics, and I can’t blame anyone for not hopping aboard. Even on a script level, The Favourite is not a mild-mannered film: it’s aggressive, crude, spectacularly bitchy at times. Rachel Weisman and Emma Stone are strong as the contenders to the title of the favourite, but it’s Olivia Coleman who impresses with a deliberately imperfect character, powerful yet impotent. I was gradually charmed by the result despite being not-that-happy with many of the choices on display here. My appreciation for the film even grew two sizes larger the next day, as a comparative viewing of the near-contemporary Mary Queen of Scots made me appreciate the daring nature of The Favourite even more. Okay, Lanthimos, you’re got me interested in your next film now.