• The Favourite

5/1/24 (Wed)

Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2018 film reinvents the relationships between England’s 18th-century Queen Anne (a tremendous Olivia Colman) and two confidantes, cousins Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail (Emma Stone), who vie to displace one another as the monarch’s favorite. The queen bears various ailments that leave her unable to walk steadily and doesn’t always appear to be entirely on the ball. Often in a moody state, she tends to anger when she sees people enjoying themselves, often screaming at them to stop. Her infirmities leave her dependent on her aides. Which is where the conflict comes in.

The movie revolves largely around the war of tongues among the dueling cousins, both in their verbal sparring and more literal use on the queen in the bedroom. While the characters are loosely based on history, Lanthimos ups the lesbian quotient significantly, though for their part, the cousins, both comfortably married, use sex purely as a weapon to win over the sovereign (who at one point praises how Abigail “puts her tongue in me”).

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