England, 1705. The British are at war with the French Empire, while the poor Abigail Hill arrives to the court of Queen Anne in search for a job. Abigail isn't satisfied with the job of a maid, so she decides to climb up the ladder by presenting herbs that help Anne's sick legs. However, Anne's favorite is Sarah Churchill, who also uses the Queen to influence politics, and Abigail spots them in a lesbian relationship. Abigail tells Sarah that she knows her secret, but Sarah ignores her. Abigail becomes friends with politician Harley. Abigail puts drugs in Sarah's tea, causing Sarah to fall unconscious during a ride on a horse, until it is stopped at a brothel. In her absence, Abigail becomes Anne's new favorite and gains a noble status. Sarah returns, but Anne expels her. When Anne wakes up, she orders Abigail to massage her foot.
"The Favourite" seems like someone decided to take a dry historical story and make it as bizarre and grotesque as possible, and thus the strange director Yorgos Lanthimos was a good choice, managing to enrich the story with unusual camera angles, wide-angle lenses or distorted fonts of subtitles that stand out from the rest of such costume dramas. Despite all these bizarre interventions, the sole story is actually a rather universal "rags to riches" tale in which two women (Abigail, Sarah) are fighting each other for the affection of Queen Anne, trying to use her power to rise through the ranks, which is easy to understand. Numerous films were made about employees fighting for a promotion in a company or to please their boss, and thus this tale isn't that far off from this trend, despite centuries of difference. Emma Stone stands out as Abigail, whereas Lanthimos adds quirky ideas here and there (a duck race in slow motion; nobles throwing pomegranates at a naked jester for fun). However, the dialogue is not that strong, and the jokes are not that fun. Most of the humor is just grotesque (a servant holds a metal bucket while Queen Anne throws up, but then she just resumes playing cards and even takes another bite; the 17 rabbits as "replacements" for Anne's dead children), instead of also being more uplifting or triumphant. Lanthimos conjures up a rather realistic environment at times (for instance, the night scenes are only partially illuminated by candles, to illustrate how it was during that time), yet the story never really takes off on a higher level, among other due to the weird, incomplete ending. Sometimes bizarrities don't always translate into quality.
Grade:++
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