In 18th Century England, Queen Anne occupies the throne. Her close friend Lady Sarah pushes her into decisions and governs the country. When Abigail arrives as a new servant she will do everything it takes to get her title of being a Lady back.
This film is utterly bonkers, off the wall and therefore brilliant. Like nothing you have seen before with truly outstanding performances and pushing boundaries like never before. I do imagine that this film is going to totally divide people and I absolutely love that. Some people are going to love it and others are going to totally hate it!
The story is based very very loosely on the facts and rumours from Queen Anne's reign. Especially when it came to her relationship with Lady Sarah, something that was rumoured to have a romantic side to it. The film takes that and has the Queen with her favourite. This is something Abigail then sees as her way into the higher class. She was part of a good family, but when her father went mad she lost everything. Cousins with Sarah she manages to get herself into this crazy world with the Queen, and those rabbits.
The brilliance around the film has to be the scenes we see and the close up shots of them walking and showing the emotions to the situation that is happening. While everything was going on England were at War and the Queen was supposed to be making very important decisions, but suffering from gout seemed to take its toll and put her off her duty. The score managed to be haunting and perfectly placed to help the mood of the film. Abigail will stop at nothing to get what she wants and manages to fool so many people along the way, making them think that she was very angelic when she was far from that.
I can fully understand the hype surrounding Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone. They are all outstanding and impressive from start to finish, really showing that good roles for females can and do happen, plus this can all be in one film! Seriously I couldn't pick who I thought was the best as they are all just amazing and bring out the very best in one another. I have never really been the biggest fan of Rachel Weisz so was good to really appreciate this performance. Emma Stone as you are probably aware is one of my favourite actresses around at the moment. I also feel I have to mention Nicholas Hoult who managed to steal a couple of scenes as well, something I wasn't really expecting. He offered some very light relief and extremely funny moments.
Director Yorgos Lanthimos is not afraid to push the boundaries as we have seen with his other films, especially The Lobster and then The Killing of the Sacred Deer. Taking on a different type of with The Favourite but keeping plenty of wit and utter chaos. With more laugh out loud moments than I ever really expected to be brutally honest. This film won't be for everyone, but please appreciate the performances and the willingness to do something so very different.
