It's fair to say that Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is an acquired taste with his previous features The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Lobster whilst bold and at times brilliant films are also polarising and not for all cinematic tastes. His latest film The Favourite does bridge that gap from the wonderfully weird to the mainstream whilst still having the Greek auteur's fingerprints all over it and this is largely due to the three simply incredible performances from it's leading actors.
After a limited release nationwide earlier in the year, The Favourite thankfully get's it's platform at Tralee Omniplex this week giving local audiences the chance to see first hand newly crowned Oscar winner Olivia Coleman's award winning performance as Queen Anne.
Set in early 18th century with England at war with the French. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her place while tending to Anne's ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail Masham (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah with Sarah taking Abigail under her wing and Abigail seeing a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become quite time consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen's companion. Their blossoming friendship gives her a chance to fulfil her ambitions and she will not let woman, man, politics or rabbit stand in her way.
Dressed up in period drama clothes, this film is so much more - dark, cutting, cruel, funny, sad, uncomfortable yet it looks incredible thanks to the work of cinematographer Robbie Ryan who achieves the royal over the top flamboyant look with ease.
Olivia Coleman quite rightly received her Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe for a performance of complexity, anarchy and wit that is worthy of all the gushing praise that has come her way in recent times.
Large credit too has to go to Rachel Weiss and Emma Stone for two equally impressive portrayals and the obvious chemistry between the cast is clear for all to see and the feature is so much the better for it. Nicholas Hoult, also deserves recognition for a wonderfully spiteful performance as Robert Harley which may get overlooked due to the success and recognition rightly given to his co-stars.
As with most Lanthimos's features this will not be for the everyone and is sure to gain a mixed reaction at the Omniplex but for me, due to the director's bold film making style (at times resembling Kubrick's Barry Lyndon), the casts larger than life performances and a tale that will keep you intrigued until the very end, The Favourite is worthy of it's place at the top table at this years awards events.
✹✹✹✹
No comments:
Post a Comment