The Oscars are just around the corner, and with the Oscars come the Oscar bait films. I can't really complain about these films as I go for them hook line and sinker, even though I don't actually care for the Oscars all that much, especially after Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) was nominated for Best Picture this year (what a fucking joke). One thing about the Oscars is that you always get the same kind of films, politically charged biopics, art house darlings, any film Meryl Streep was in, and, as in the case of The Favourite (2018), the British period drama. With this in mind I sat down to watch this film expecting just that, your run of the mill period drama. What I got was not at all what I expected, and the film was so much better for it. The film follows the story of two cousins, Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail (Emma Stone) as they vie for the affections of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), the last of the Stuart monarchs. The rivalry between Sarah and Abigail leads to secret alliances, attempted murder and sexual deviance with each woman attempting to outdo each other in order to win the affections of the Queen.
This film completely took me by surprise. I was expecting it to be a well made and well acted film, as most period pieces tend to be, but what I got was so much more. This film is visually stunning, as well as being visually daring. A lot of the film feels like a standard period drama for a lot of it, with well set up cinematography of grand buildings and beautifully decorated sets, but these are mixed in with oddly distorted shots and weird, unexpected sequences which give the film a real sense of surrealism and basically turns all expectations of the film on their head. Well, they will if you are like me and do not know the work of the films director, Yorgos Lanthimos, whose films up to date have been quite surreal. This film is no exception, because it is definitely weird. But it is also a beautiful film. The costumes are all absolute stellar even if they are costumes that we have seen a lot before in period pieces, and it is shot fantastically. The main aspect of the film that impressed me is that it is shot almost entirely (and possible completely) in natural light, using candles in darker scenes. The scenes which are lit by candle light are stunning, like some sort of beautiful piece of art. You could probably take a still from so many scenes in this film and hang them on your wall and they would pass as an art piece, they are just that stunning and also very much Oscar worthy.
The performances in the film are also brilliant. Rachel Weisz puts in a superb performance as Sarah, making the character initially quite unlikeable but manages to swing you around toward the end of the film to make you sympathetic towards. Head strong and vicious, she gets across the characters desire and willingness to do whatever is needed to get her own way, but she also has a softer side and her love for the Queen seems real,even if she only shows out fleetingly. Emma Stone is also superb as Abigail, who has almost exactly the opposite character arc to Sarah. Starting as a vulnerable and weak character, as she gets closer to the Queen she becomes diabolical, conniving and also quite evil, and Stone portrays this character transformation brilliantly. Olivia Colman is taking many of the plaudits for her performance in this film, and I think these plaudits are very much warranted. She is brilliant as Queen Anne, a Queen who often times behaves almost like a toddler. Vulnerable and naive to everything going on around her she is easily manipulated and deceived, mainly due to tragedy that has followed her her entire life and her desire to be loved. Colman plays the character brilliantly, being utterly sympathetic whilst also remaining funny and really pulling off the comedy of the film, as do both Stone and Weisz. I think the real sleeper performance of the film is Nicholas Hoult as Tory MP, Robert Harley. He is wickedly entertaining in the role, and always owned the screen whenever he was on screen (possibly because of his very elaborate costume and look). He is able to come across as a two faced schemer very, very well, but the main reason he is so good is because he is very funny in the role. In fact, everyone is really funny in this film, and that is the thing that caught me by surprise the most about this film. This film is a surrealist comedy disguised as a historical drama, with the most uses of the word cunt I have ever heard in a film.
The Favourite really caught me off in guard in the best way possible. I was expecting to watch a film in the mould of every other period piece I have seen. I was expecting it to be a serious drama about these two characters fighting for the affection of the Queen, but that is not what I got at all. Instead I get a visually beautiful, brilliantly witty and fantastically performed surrealist comedy wearing the disguise of a historical drama and I really, really enjoyed it. I haven't seen many of the Best Picture nominations so far, with BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) being the only other two, but I think that The Favourite is probably the most Oscar worthy of the three (although I think I prefer BlacKkKlansman overall)mainly due to its absolutely stunning cinematography, which I feel it has a really good chance of winning. This is a film i really do recommend, but at the same time I have to put a warning on it. This film is not going to be for everyone. It is a bit to weird to be a proper mainstream hit, but not so weird that it should fully put you off going if you're interested. Just don't expect a classic historical drama, you will be very disappointed.