The Favourite: Allowing the U to Obscure the Favor

Yorgos Lanthimos (The Killing of a Sacred Deer) has created a sumptuous period piece about women and their will to power. I suspect more than just a few film critics have used the word sumptuous to describe The Favourite (Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers does for sure) but Lanthimos goes out of his way to illustrate the films sumptuousness. Perhaps a little too far out of his way for his own good, which may be ironic given the story. There much hay made about this film being driven by three female leads, but story’s tend to revolve (as do the other characters) around a central protagonist and in this story that protagonist is Abigail Hill played by the ever impressive Emma Stone. Both Queen Anne of Great Britain (Olivia Colman) and Rachel Weisz’s Sarah Churchill are strong supporting characters, but supporting none the less.

The film is separated into various titled chapters but opens with an untitled prologue featuring Queen Anne being undressed by her many servants as Sarah Churchill watches. The Queen asks Sarah what she thought of her speech, Sarah answers complimentary and the Queen asks Sarah to say hello to her many rabbits and so begins The Favourite. The first chapter, however revolves around Abigail as does the last. Historically, Abigail was a cousin to Sarah (Duchess of Marlborough) and their rivalry between each other in their competition to gain favor as Queen Anne’s favorite is accurate enough but Lanthimos is on record for stating that “Some of the things in the film are accurate and a lot aren’t.”

It shouldn’t take most watching to figure that out when the dance between Sarah and Samuel Masham turns out to look more like voguing than 16th century ball room dance. That dance scene is joyously absurd in its choreography but it’s tragedy is that the scene is not at all about dancing but really about not dancing, as Queen Anne incapable of dancing herself and watching this raucous dance finally explodes in a pouty demand the dancing stop. That Queen Anne was plagued with illness for much of her reign is one of those historically accurate portrayals but the sexual relationship between the Duchess of Marlborough and the Queen is far more speculative and even doubtful historically, but for this story have no doubt about it, it is the foundation for the love triangle that unfolds.

Abigail was a Lady who fell from grace, and when we first see her she is kicked out of the carriage she’s a passenger. A carriage where she is subjected to another male passenger watching her has he masturbates and then she’s unceremoniously tossed from the carriage. This first chapter is titled “This Mud Stinks” and it is a reference to the same mud Abigail must rise out of and slog her way to the palace of Queen Anne and beg her cousin of whom she’s never met for a job. We learn later her father gambled her away in a card game as she manipulates her way up the social ladder and into Queen Anne’s heart.

Early on in that first chapter where Abigail asks Sarah for a job a nicely written bit of foreshadowing is presented as Sarah asks what sort of job she would like; “A monster for the children to play with, perhaps?” Gamely, Abigail responds “Yes, if you like,” and then Stone does an adorable imitation of a growling monster only to have the joke fall flat and she divert her eyes in embarrassment. Stone has always had a natural flair for comedy and this is one of those scenes that accentuates that, but it also foreshadows the monster Abigail will become in her bid to regain social status.

While both the Queen and the Duchess of Marlborough are supporting players in this narrative, they are far from minor characters. The minor characters have all been assigned to the men and that’s not by accident. The men in this film are foppish, frivolous fools who play silly games and act silly while playing at the more serious political games. Nicholas Hoult