In “The Favourite,” a deliciously diabolical comedy of ill manners and outr? palace intrigue, Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne, who in the 18th century ruled Great Britain while suffering through 17 ill-fated pregnancies, severe illness and wars with Spain and France.
Those circumstances are alluded to but not center in this movie, which focuses on Anne’s relationship with two of her closest female friends: Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, who became her most intimate confidante and adviser, and Abigail Hill, who supplanted Sarah in the queen’s affections toward the end of her reign. In this lusty, wildly speculative jape, writers Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara take those real-world outlines and run with them, concocting a story bursting with schemes, subterfuges, sexual antics and sly social commentary worthy of the Restoration era they depict so lavishly.
Funny, cynical, extravagant and rapturously vulgar, “The Favourite” puts the lie to such well-heeled dramas as “The Crown” (which Colman will star in soon) and Peter Morgan’s carefully researched biopics. Here, period authenticity clashes happily with occasional creative anachronisms to present audiences with a portrait of power as sobering as it is scabrously conniving.
As “The Favourite” opens, Abigail (Emma Stone) is just arriving at Kensington Palace, where she hopes to improve her fortunes with the help of her cousin, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz). Unimpressed, Sarah relegates the bedraggled but comely young lady to the scullery, the quicker to return her attentions to the emotionally needy Queen Anne — who at this stage of her life is half-mad with gout and grief — and pressing issues of war and peace. Soon enough, though, the wide-eyed Abigail has insinuated herself into the queen’s favor, deploying her native charms and wily intelligence with the tactical shrewdness of Captain-General Marlborough himself.