Director Yorgos Lanthimos' opulent costume drama, "The Favorite," is a bizarre historical farce. It revolves around the rumors about 18th century Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs, who reportedly indulged in lesbian liaisons with two of her closest sycophants. After losing 17 children, portly, petulant Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is no longer interested in ruling England, which is waging war with France. Instead, she'd rather eat sweets, play with her pet rabbits and dawdle with pretty young ladies. Her closest friend, the scheming Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), makes all of the queen's important political decisions with Prime Minister Godolphin (James Smith), until suddenly Sarah's cherubic, yet shrewdly conniving cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) shows up at Kensington Palace, having fallen on hard times. Playing complicated court games, ambitious Abigail learns to make herself indispensable to the volatile, yet vulnerable Queen, as a power-shift occurs.
Lanthimos, an experimental filmmaker, seems to enjoy coy amorality and the occasionally odd intended-to-be-funny scenes (Abigail falling in the mud and dancing that turns spastically funky). And the ladies outdo themselves with naughty, often vulgar, behavior. Nonetheless, the performances are top-notch, especially that of the alternately sinister and chummy Weisz. However, the main fault of the script and direction is that we really don't care what happens to any of these women. And the ultimate black mark? He's not going to end it right there, is he? IS HE? He is. And the reason to see "The Favorite" is not for the ending that really isn't an ending.
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