Skip to footer

'The Favourite' is self-satisfyingly smart-alecky

( R ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

The film is about Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), the last of the Stuart monarchs, and the two women (Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone) who are vying for her favors.

|
Yorgos Lanthimos/Fox Searchlight Films/AP
Rachel Weisz and Olivia Coleman (r.) star in 'The Favourite.'
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

The Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos ("Dogtooth," "The Lobster"), has a cultish reputation that has always seemed inflated to me. His new film, "The Favourite," is a continuation of what he does best and worst: It’s nasty and knowing but way too self-satisfyingly smart-alecky for its own good.

Set in early 18th-century England, it’s about Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), the last of the Stuart monarchs, and the two women – her close friend, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), and Sarah’s commoner cousin, Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) – who are vying for her favors, sexual and otherwise, in Kensington Palace. It’s a vicious power triangle and the stage is set for acidulous goings-on, but the script, by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, is coy, arch, and overloaded with zingers that often miss their mark.

The actresses are so expert, especially Colman, with her grievous, hardbitten woe, that you may not care, but if one is to mock this sort of historical extravaganza, I much prefer the nutbrain Monty Python approach to all this deep-dish folderol. Fiona Crombie’s production design and Sandy Powell’s costumes are far more sumptuous than this movie deserves – it’s almost as good to look at as “Barry Lyndon” and not half as boring – but after a while, even the tapestries and candelit tableaux wear out their welcome. Grade: C+ (Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language.) 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'The Favourite' is self-satisfyingly smart-alecky
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2018/1130/The-Favourite-is-self-satisfyingly-smart-alecky
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe