The Favourite (2018)
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Written by Deborah
Davis, Tony McNamara
Starring Olivia
Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, Nicholas Hoult
Only a guy with films
like DOGTOOTH and THE LOBSTER on his resume could reasonably describe THE
FAVOURITE as his “most normal” film, but that’s the position we find ourselves
in with Yorgos Lanthimos in 2018. But if the film represents a retreat from the
brazen surreality of Lanthimos’ earlier work, it certainly loses nothing of the
savage misanthropic satire which makes his filmography such a prickly treat. On
the surface, this resembles any number of mannered British period pieces; it
concerns prim aristocrats in ornate costumes who vie for social standing and
power in the Royal court (in this case, the court of Queen Anne in 1708). But
unsuspecting moviegoers envisioning a big-screen Downton Abbey are going
to be in for a very nasty shock indeed. Without doing anything obtrusively
anachronistic, Lanthimos and his superb cast bring a minor episode from the
dimly remembered past to lively, venomous life, full of slippery power dynamics
(both political and sexual) that feel ripped right from today’s headlines.
That cast really is
something to see: Olivia Colman (HOT FUZZ) is so spectacular as the fragile,
desperate Queen Anne that she steals the movie right out from under an
absolutely terrific Rachel Weisz (DREAM HOUSE), something I frankly didn’t think could be
done. But pretty much everyone is superb; Nicholas Hoult (ABOUT A BOY), as a
venal rival aristocrat, is giving far and away the best performance of his
career, and is still by a comfortable margin not in the top three best
performances in the movie (for her part, Emma Stone [THE HOUSE BUNNY] builds
her role around a scrappy live-wire vivaciousness which makes her both likably
earnest and curiously enigmatic). Still, the movie’s strength is not solely, or
even primarily, in its acting; Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan shoot
their opulent royal spaces with a queasy unease that sometimes warps into
out-and-out distortion, masterfully turning chambers of extravagant luxury into
agoraphobic nightmares of oppressive emptiness. It’s never out-and-out surreal
(the plot remains firmly fixed in reality) but it uses the tools of surreal
cinema to add a potent layer of alienating disquiet to the already anxious
machinations we’re observing.
Which is not to say it’s
not ribald and funny --it certainly is!-- but the comedy has a merciless edge
to it that makes the movie a tense watch. It’s a nasty, misanthropic thing, not
at all afraid to play rough with its characters, while simultaneously refusing
to turn any of them into outright villains. All three women at the film’s
center are flawed, opportunistic, abrasive, manipulative… and sympathetic, or
at least pathetic enough that we root for them. We’d like to see them all end
up happy, but the roles they’ve cast themselves in place them unmistakably at
odds with each other, and consequently the shifting emotional power dynamics
feel vital and dangerous. If there’s such a thing as a political thriller,
perhaps THE FAVOURITE is best described as an emotional thriller. There
is, of course, always the looming threat of actual death or political
catastrophe, but it says something about the film’s bitter empathy that those
threats barely register next to the film’s real horror: being rejected and
pushed out by those you love. This is, I think, the film’s secret weapon; for
all its vulgarity and cynicism, there’s a streak of hopeless desperation for
love and acceptance which runs through it, and grounds the rest of the film in
a tender vulnerability which makes the sting more than purely superficial, the
schemes more than simply tactical. For all its splendidly odd affectations, its
earnestness and wounded humanity give it its real power.
Anyway, it’s certainly
about the most I can imagine myself enjoying a movie about repressed courtly
power struggles amongst English royalty in the 18th century. While
Lanthimos’ brand of uniquely confounding magical realism is too special to give
up entirely, THE FAVOURITE offers definitive proof of his ability to fully
utilize his distinct strengths as a filmmaker in service of other goals.
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