The Favourite 2018 Movie Review

『A Historical Drama Exploring the Labyrinth of Power and Love』

🎥 Movie Overview

🎬 Title: The Favourite (2018)
🌍 Country: 🇬🇧 UK / 🇮🇪 Ireland / 🇺🇸 USA
🎞️ Genre: Historical Drama / Black Comedy / Drama
🗓️ Production & Release: Element Pictures / Single Feature Film
⏳ Runtime: 119 minutes
📢 Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
🖋️ Screenplay: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara

👩‍💼 Cast: Olivia Colman – Queen Anne
Emma Stone – Abigail Hill
Rachel Weisz – Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough

🧩 In-Depth Story Exploration (Spoilers)

🐇 A Cruel Court Survival Game

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite is set in 18th-century England during the reign of Queen Anne, yet it shatters the conventions of the traditional period drama with its cruel, bizarre, and captivating black comedy. The film revolves around the absolute power of Queen Anne and the obsessive triangular relationship between her two closest women: Sarah Churchill (the Duchess of Marlborough) and the fallen aristocrat Abigail Hill. Through this, the film dissects the primal human desires of power, class, and sexuality.

⚔️ A Dynamic Triangle of Three Women and Their Power Struggles

🌿 Queen Anne (Played by Olivia Colman)

Olivia Colman’s Academy Award-winning performance as Queen Anne portrays a woman at the height of power yet deeply fragile and insecure. Having lost 17 children through miscarriages or early deaths, she suffers from profound grief, gout, depression, and detachment from governance, which make her seem like a hysterical and capricious child. For Anne, her beloved women are both substitutes for her lost children and objects of affection that soothe her instability. Her favoritism is erratic and emotional, fueling the unpredictable rivalry between Sarah and Abigail.

🔥 Sarah Churchill (Played by Rachel Weisz)

Rachel Weisz portrays Sarah as intelligent, authoritative, and coldly pragmatic. As Anne’s long-time confidante and lover, Sarah reprimands the queen’s whims while effectively governing in her stead. She genuinely loves and cares for Anne, but her love manifests in a domineering and controlling way. She wields affection as a tool of dominance, while also serving as a ruthless political strategist safeguarding royal authority.

🦉 Abigail Hill (Played by Emma Stone)

Emma Stone’s Abigail is a fallen noblewoman who enters the palace as a servant, burning with ambitions of class restoration. Initially appearing naive and kind, she quickly reveals cunning and cruelty once she grasps the brutality of court life, plotting to usurp her cousin Sarah’s place. For Abigail, Anne’s favor is not about love but a means of survival and social advancement. She skillfully manipulates emotions, feigning empathy for the queen’s vulnerability, making her a master manipulator of feelings.

🎨 Style and Mise-en-Scène: Lanthimos’ Subversive Period Drama

Lanthimos employs fish-eye lenses and high angles to capture the palace in distorted perspectives.

• Distorted Spaces: The palace feels both vast and claustrophobic, visually emphasizing the isolation and psychological corruption of the three women. The fish-eye lens destabilizes figures and settings, exposing the grotesque absurdities of palace life beneath its grandeur.

• Bold Mise-en-Scène and Black Comedy: Scenes of nobles throwing tomatoes at naked men or racing ducks satirize an aristocracy indulging in debauchery while the nation faces crisis. These bizarre spectacles reflect Lanthimos’ signature cold, cynical humor.

• Sex and Power: The women’s same-sex relationships are depicted not as pure exchanges of love but as tools to secure favor and power. Sexual intimacy becomes both the language of dominance and a political weapon.

💡 Survival, Class, and Submission

A. Power Operates Through Affection

In this film, crucial national decisions (such as whether to continue a war) hinge not on rational debate but on private games of affection in the queen’s bedroom. Power flows not through official systems but through Anne’s mercurial whims and favoritism. Whoever provides her affection becomes the true power broker of the realm.

B. The Loss and Reclaiming of Class

Abigail’s journey embodies the obsession with social mobility. Her fallen aristocratic status represents both lost honor and lost security. Her pursuit of the queen’s favor is less about love than proving herself through regained status. Ultimately, she ousts Sarah and reclaims her title, yet succumbs to corruption, becoming a ruler in Sarah’s former mold.

C. A Catastrophic Ending: Who Truly Won?

In the final act, Abigail, now at the pinnacle of power, cruelly crushes one of Anne’s rabbits. The queen notices, seizes Abigail by the neck, and forces her to massage her leg, asserting brutal dominance.

• The Fall of the Victor: Though Abigail secures power, she is reduced to servitude, trapped at the queen’s feet. Her position rests precariously on Anne’s unstable favor, leaving her as confined as the queen’s many rabbits.

• The Nature of Power: The ending reveals that no one truly wins—power itself is a shackle. Anne mitigates her loneliness through domination, Abigail maintains status through submission, and Sarah, though stripped of everything, escapes humiliating dependence.

📽️ A Cynical Yet Brilliant Human Study

The Favourite is a masterwork of sharp writing, flawless ensemble acting, and distinctive direction. Lanthimos refrains from moral judgment, instead coldly observing and mocking human ugliness, selfishness, and vulnerability in the face of power and affection. It is less a depiction of 18th-century history than a timeless study of human relationships and power dynamics.

🎯 Personal Rating

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★☆