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The Favourite
****
Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone
(UK, 15, 1hr 59 mins)
Olivia Colman continues her streak of excellent performances in this delightfully obtuse Restoration farce from Yorgos Lanthimos, director of The Lobster and modern classic Dogtooth.
Colman plays the forgotten royal Queen Anne, who reigned between 1702 to 1714, a monarch who was pregnant seventeen times but whose children all perished before they reached the age of eleven. She is loyally served by Rachel Weisz’s Sarah, a long serving member of the court and the needy Queen’s confidante in more ways than one, being a political advisor as well as a lover.
Emma Stone’s Abigail, Sarah’s cousin, enters this relationship and usurps it, initially taken on as a scullery maid but soon worming her way into court and to the Queen herself. A power struggle ensues between the two women as they vie for the Queen’s attentions with hilarious results.
Loosely based on fact, the script by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara is an endlessly quotable anarchic and often heartbreaking mix of skullduggery and character study. The triumvirate of acting talent coalesce into something truly remarkable, Colman’s weak Queen elicits pity and sympathy as well as laughs – she keeps 17 rabbits for each of her lost children – whilst Weisz is flintily intelligent and Stone (with a perfect English accent) is an apparent innocent whose scheming machinations and competition with her cousin bring out the best and worst in her.
The film manages to blend Restoration comedy with modern flourishes – a baroque dance turns into a something more rock stadium-friendly and there is a strong feminist slant to the proceedings; men are unimportant and only to be exploited and the scheming of courtiers with their own agendas for power at any cost has a timely resonance in the Brexit era. Funny and brimming with intelligence, lush camerawork and costume design, this is a classy, intelligent drama filtered through the offbeat lens of director Lanthimos and a sure fire favourite for awards season.
words Keiron Self
Out now in cinemas