The Favourite

"The Favourite" is a British film starring Emma Stone, Rachel Weiss, and Olivia Coleman.

In this film, Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne in a time where she is in ill health. She has lost seventeen children, and is currently suffering with gout. Her mood changes at the drop of a hat, and she changes her mind the second after making a decision.

Rachel Weisz plays Lady Marlborough, a Lady in the court of Queen Anne. The two women talk to each other with love, wit and honesty, as if they were best friends or sisters, rather than monarch and subject.

Emma Stone plays Abigail, a cousin of Lady Marlborough, who was once a Lady but had a fall from grace when her father died. She is given a placement as a scullery maid, and quickly works her way up in station.

Queen Anne is the center of the universe in this story, with Lady Marlborough and Abigail continually usurp one another to establish their station in the court of the queen. To me, Lady Marlborough and Abigail are courtesans to Queen Anne, as both of the women had a sexual relationship with the Queen.

While the movie was billed and promoted as a comedy, it is anything but. It is quite disorienting to watch, and it is intentional. For example, directors usually fill interior shots with light, even in night scenes. However, this film is shot as the castle would have been in the days of Queen Anne, without internal lights, only candlelight, dimly lit hallways. It only gives the audience the perspective of the person holding the candle, not what remains in the darkness.

Another technique of disorientation in the film is the use of the lens on the camera. Several scenes in the film are shot with a fish eye lens, which has only the center of the shot in focus, and distorts everything in the periphery.

Audibly, this film equally disorienting. It has an interesting soundtrack. If I can call it a “soundtrack.” Music is an integral part of a movie, to convey a mood or emotion in a scene. In this film, the music is dissonant, unpleasant to the ear. For example, in one five minute scene, the entire orchestration of the scene is a violin playing one note. The note is played, then the played an octave lower, then again the original octave, then the lower octave, over and over again. To the ear of a musician, it sounds like a player tuning their instrument for an entire five minutes. It is annoying and grating, and unsettling. This is but one example of dissonance in the film.

The story of the film shows the women as conniving, scheming creatures who are only out to satisfy themselves. However, at the end of the film, they each find themselves in a circumstance of their own making, which has not served them in the least. The moral of the story for these women: be careful what you wish for.

Normally when I watch a film, I watch it for 30 minutes; if the film hasn’t improved in this time, most often, it’s not going to. Despite my normal 30 minute rule, I kept watching this film. I should have turned it off at the 30 minute mark.

Despite my dislike for this film, I love the women in it. I loved Olivia Colman in “Broadchurch” from the BBC. I love Rachel Weisz in “Denial”, and as Evelyn the bad ass librarian in the first two Mummy movies. I loved Emma Stone in “The Help”, and “Magic in the Moonlight.” The performances of the cast of women in this film are the only reason I can rate this film so highly.

Olivia Colman won the Oscar for her role as Queen Anne in this film. Glenn Close was also nominated for Best Actress for the movie “The Wife.” Now that I have seen both films and performances, if I were a member of the Academy, I would have given the Oscar to Glenn Close. “The Wife” is a better film than “The Favourite”, and I feel Close’s performance is better than Coleman’s.

“The Favourite”, now on Blu Ray, DVD, YouTube, Vudu, Google Play. Two stars.