THE FAVOURITE Doesn't Sit Right as Ladies Court Queen Anne's Delight with Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz

THE FAVOURITE first appears in the Merchant Ivory genre; lavish period piece set in England featuring characters from both the aristocracy and proletariate classes whose entanglements are tattered with disillusionment and tragic outcomes.  THE FAVOURITE is directed by Yorgos Lanthinos (b. Greece 1973) and won the Grand Jury Prize.  (I think the jury must have been out to lunch.)  Lanthinos has worked with 2 of his leading ladies in THE LOBSTER.  The film is set in England in the early 18th C towards the waning years of Queen Anne's reign.  The lavish scenes are inside & outside Kensington Palace.  The magnificence of the Palace's charms & lifestyle of the noble class is both splendid and unrefined.  The cinematography is enchanting; especially scenes lit by candlelight.  The Queen (British actress Olivia Colman) gives a remarkable portrait of an inept and pathetic ruler of England, Scotland & Ireland.  The Queen is royally handled by Lady Sarah Marlborough (British actress Rachel Weisz) who orders the Queen to make rulings concerning the country's governing, taxation & maintaining warfare with France. The Queen also leans towards bestowing rewards or punishments at Lady Sarah's beckoning.  Lady Abigails (a miscast Emma Stone) has had her station in life drastically diminished.  She is cousin to Lady Sarah.  Abigail seeks the favor of employment at Kensington in any manner through her familial connection. Abigail is put to work as a scullery maid where she is tormented but not unhinged.  Abigail proves a resourceful & vindictive enemy.  Soon the talons come out between Lady Abigail and Lady Sarah, a formidable opponent.  As both Abigail & Sarah maneuver to win the Queen's favor their battles & vendettas seem to pale the fighting between Britain & France.  The resplendent looking film is its own worst enemy despite the fine acting by Colman & Weisz.  The film recklessly tosses in an anachronistic dancing scene (soul train during the Queen's reign?).   The bawdiness to garner the Queen's good graces is grotesque.  The movie isn't a distinguished time piece.  It's a sinister & lewd farce and a disastrous drudgery to endure.  The ridiculous captions between scenes would've been better served by a jester holding signs.  Lady Marlborough tells the Queen there are limits to love and "love is not having to lie."  Never seeing THE FAVOURITE  means not having to say you're sorry (or forewarned.)