The Favorite Review: Competition Wins The Queen's Heart

“The Favorite” (2018) is a period drama film by the eccentric director, Yorgos Lanthimos. Set in 18th century Britain, Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is a sickly queen. Both physically and mentally.

Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) is the queen's trusted servant with utmost devotion. However, his position begins to be threatened when his cousin, Abigail (Emma Stone) works at the palace and launches a strategy to conquer Queen Anne. A rivalry ensues between Sarah and Abigail, fighting for the position as the queen's favorite.

Written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, “The Favorite” is adapted from British royal history, but is largely fiction. Especially on the dynamics of the rivalry between Sarah Churchill and Abigail Masham. When the main character in this film is an original historical figure, but adapted in a period drama script full of intrigue and conflict that is interesting to watch.

The main premise in “The Favorite” is the rivalry between Sarah and Abigail as Queen Anne's favourite. From the premise that looks simple, the objective of the story becomes more focused. However, it was successfully developed into sharing material, sequences, and film scenes with interesting developments.

The plot focuses more on the development of the rivalry between the two characters. Like the cold war that is getting hotter over time, the development of Sarah and Abigail's interactions is built gradually with the right rhythm.

We will see the efforts of both parties show their best efforts and form a strategy to steal Queen Anne's heart. Sarah, as a long-standing loyal servant to the queen, strives to maintain the love she already has. Meanwhile, Abigail becomes a new person who clearly wants to take Sarah's position. When the situation gets intense, we'll also start to decide sides; support Sarah or Abigail? We will begin to assess the sincerity and motivation of each character through a series of scenes. So it's no less exciting than the competition of love and war in period dramas.

Through "The Favorite", Olivia Colman was awarded her first Oscar as Best Actress in 2019. She deserves the award for her unique acting as Queen Anne in a script with a touch of black comedy . Queen Anne is represented as an unstable queen. He is lonely, spoiled, and needs extra attention.

His mental instability made it quite difficult to judge people and see the sincerity of his servants. Makes it easy to manipulate by those who just want to take advantage of it. Colman managed to project this vision into the character he played. With all his seriousness, there is still a touch of comedy that we can see in his acting.

For fans of Rachel Weisz, they will agree that films like this always match the image of this beautiful actress. Previously he also played in the film Yargos Lanthimos, "The Lobster" (2015). With a calm expression on her face, we can still see the love, deep care, and cruelty because she desperately wants to maintain her position as the queen's favorite servant.

If this film is Weisz's habitat, Emma Stone is a new actress in this genre of film. But Stone seems to give his best effort to take artistic scripts that are more challenging. “The Favorite” is a manifestation of Emma Stone's desire to get the latest acting experience and she has managed to prove herself if in the future there are other at-house directors who want to cast her.

“The Favorite” is a film with a new background story and production concept from Yorgos Lanthimos. Previously, he was more famous as a director with original dystopian script concepts such as “The Lobster”, “Alps”, “Dogtooth” and many other titles. These films have a unique story concept, which is then realized in a production setting that tends to be minimalist.

“The Favorite” is the opposite, the premise of the story is simple, but packed with a magnificent production design. Like period drama films in general, we will see the background of the British Empire with a charming classic interior and exterior. The make-up and costume designs in this film also meet the technical production standards of period films. Then immortalized in artistic cinematography.

Even with various new elements being introduced, the quirky and black comedy flavors of Lanthimos still feel strong in “The Favorite”. The combination of acting direction and dialogue execution that is presented still has its own characteristics.

For those who really fall in love with this film, maybe they will be curious about this director's project in a magnificent setting again in the future. With “The Favorite”, Yorgos Lanthimos adapts a new script setting, but is able to maintain his signature that is always eccentric. No matter how simple the premise is.