Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.5

The Favourite Blu-ray Movie Review

The past was also female.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 2, 2019

Well, as it turned out, Olivia Colman was indeed “The Favourite” at the recent Academy Awards, besting the recently “rechristened via meme” Glenn “Close, but no cigar”*, who had been touted by the pundit class as a near shoe in, in the Best Actress category. That was one of the few big surprises on Oscar night, but it perhaps helped to shine a light on one of the more peculiar films from 2018, one that combines the typically opulent trappings of a so-called “historical epic” with a much more modern day ambience, leading to a rather interesting intentional clash between style and content. Anyone who has seen either or both of director Yorgos Lanthimos’ two immediately prior films, The Lobster and/or The Killing of a Sacred Deer, may have a (pantalooned?) leg up on the proceedings here, for Lanthimos once again flirts with near surrealism even as he doles out some more anchored psychological truths. The story of the film is very loosely based on actual history, though Lanthimos and his team are up front in the “making of” featurette included on this Blu-ray disc as a supplement that they really weren’t going for anything approaching true “historical accuracy”. That means that not only actual “facts” here are questionable on several occasions, but the whole tone of the film is often deliberately off kilter and almost dreamlike at times.

Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) sits uneasily on the throne of England, both due to psychological infirmities brought about by a devastating series of miscarriages (one of the film’s “actual” facts), but also due to a series of health issues, including recurrent gout. At her side is the Duchess of Marlborough, Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz, BAFTA and Golden Globe winner and Academy Award nominee for this performance), who for all intents and purposes is, as they say, the power behind the throne. Anne and Sarah enjoy more than a mere “professional” relationship, but their intimacy is thrown into disarray when Abigail Hill (Emma Stone, also Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated for this performance), Sarah’s cousin who has had a series of both financial and social setbacks, shows up at the palace looking for work.

The rest of the film plays out as a kind of bizarro world ménage à trois, a perhaps apt term given the fact that part of the underlying plot mechanics is that England is ensconced in a costly war with France. Against the roiling political atmosphere of Anne trying to deal with how to fund the fracas, Sarah and Abigail become rivals of sorts for Anne’s attention, leading to some interactions that are simultaneously kind of darkly humorous but also rather troubling at times. Sarah is shown to be smart, capable and ruthless in her own way, though she’s obviously deeply devoted to Anne. Abigail, on the other hand, comes across as a wide eyed naif at times, which turns out to be a complete fabrication, as she is, if anything, more ruthless than Sarah.

Now the world of court intrigue is certainly nothing new for films, but what sets The Favourite apart is not just a certain modernity of language (also discussed in the making of featurette), but a freewheeling filming style that actually makes some of Lanthimos’ flourishes in The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer seem downright staid. Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan resort to a glut of totally weird, askew, framings, including lots of uses of fisheye lenses and a penchant for almost giddy tracking shots that careen through the largely abandoned halls of Anne’s palace. It’s a totally off the wall presentational style that gives The Favourite a very unique appearance, one that frankly may chafe against the sensibilities of those who want their historical films offered “straight, no chaser”, as it were.

In terms of that particular preference, sticklers would be well advised to approach this film as a fanciful “riff” on history rather than an attempt at an accurate recreation. While there’s evidently some evidence that Anne and Sarah may have been intimate with each other, there’s also evidently no outright proof. Some of the more hyperbolic elements of the story, like a little “addition” Abigail pours into Sarah’s tea at one point, leading to some horrifying calamity, apparently never happened. But even with the accretions and fictionalizations that screenwriters Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara have brought to the tale, there’s an underlying feeling of verisimilitude in terms of the emotions being experienced by the focal trio of women. And how refreshing, even bracing, is it to have a major film which in fact offers three outstanding “lead” female performances (even if two of them were relegated to “Supporting” status in the awards season)?

*Amidst the glut of "Close, but no cigar" memes that littered my social media feeds in the wake of Colman's rather surprising upset, I offered my own probably less than helpful suggestion about how Close could finally win her long delayed Academy Award. I suggested she tackle the role of Susan Lucci in a biopic called "Just Give Me a (your favorite expletive goes here) Emmy Already." I stand ready to help develop this property should anyone be interested.

The Favourite Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Favourite is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. Shot on film and finished at a 2K DI (according to the IMDb), The Favourite makes a stunning transition to Blu-ray in another often sumptuous offering from Fox. As stated above in the main body of the review, and as can also hopefully be gleaned from several of the screenshots accompanying this review, the stylistic gambits of fisheye lenses and often quite brisk tracking shots both mean certain allowances need to be made in terms of detail, and especially fine detail, levels, notably toward the edge of the frame, where things can tend to look a bit blurry at times. That awareness taken into consideration, things pop with considerable vigor throughout this presentation, even in some scenes ostensibly shot by candlelight and bathed in warm, buttery tones. A lot of framings feature effulgent light sources in the background which tend to bathe things in a kind of soft, gauzy ambience. Close- ups (some again weirdly framed, or achieved via fisheye) can also reveal excellent levels of fine detail on things like fabric, at least toward the center of the frame. The transfer retains a nicely organic appearance throughout, with no signs of compression issues. I have to say, especially in light of my joking comments above about the Academy Awards, that had I been a voting member of the Academy, I probably would have given the cinematography prize to Robbie Ryan and this film, rather than Alfonso Cuarón and Roma, no matter how evocative Cuarón's work was. (Part of this is no doubt due to hindsight, since Cuarón got his "fair share" of statuettes that night in any case.)

The Favourite Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Favourite has a nicely robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, one which attains bursts of rather fierce energy in a couple of shooting range scenes, but which also provides good, consistent surround activity courtesy of both score and well placed ambient environmental effects, even within the confines of Anne's home. This track has rather surprising dynamic range and at least bursts of LFE, with dialogue always supported flawlessly as well.

The Favourite Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2:47) come with kind of cheeky interstitial titles that ape the film's "burlesque-esque" (sorry) approach of introducing vignettes via explanatory sectional descriptions with the oddly wide spaced font the film uses.


• The Favourite : Unstitching the Costume Drama (1080p; 22:19) is kind of a curiously rote EPK, at least given the stylistic elan of the main feature, but it benefits from some winning interviews (it's hilarious to hear Colman admit she had to ask Weisz what certain aspects of the story meant).


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:10)

The Favourite Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Favourite's stylistic excesses may actually help the film elide a few dangling plot points. (I for one had a number of questions, including how Abigail came by her knowledge of healing herbs, why Anne was so negatively affected by music in the courtyard, or even why it's hinted Sarah is being kept against her will in a house of ill repute at one point in the story.) This is another really audacious effort from Lanthimos, and it's notable in a way that the film is structured so securely around the three main females that my review didn't even mention any of the (supporting) male characters. Fox offers a beautiful looking and sounding disc, and The Favourite comes Highly recommended.