Writers: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
DOP: Robbie Ryan
Cast: Olivia Coleman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone
In early 18th century England, a frail Queen Anne (Olivia Coleman) occupies the throne and her close friend, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weiz), governing the country in her stead. When a new servant, Abigail (Emma Stone), arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah initially and then the Queen. This eventually makes Sarah and Abigail rivals competing to be the favourite of the Queen.
The film works like a love triangle where the love in it is questionable. You broadly know where it is going after the initial set up itself and that in no way comes in the way of your enjoyment of it. The three main characters are based on historical figures. Even though it is set in period, the dialogues and accents used are quite contemporary, like in The Death of Stalin, and the camera is used in a very peculiar manner with fishbowl lenses. It is very funny but the central character in it is quite a tragic figure. The decisions made on matters of state are quite arbitrary very much depending on the mood of person. The European monarchies became genetically so weak due to the incestuous nature of marriages between them and you can see that when you look at their representatives from the contemporary times.
All the recent Lanthimos films did have an animal species name as part of their title while this film ends with a scene which dissolves into a bunch of rabbits. It is the most straight forward of the films that I have watched of his. That tend to happen usually for the directors you are a big fan of, their least interesting work becomes the one they are most famous for as they are much more accessible for a general audience. Olivia Coleman deservingly won the academy award for her role in this and gave the best acceptance speech from this year's ceremony. So glad to see the Peep Show girl winning an Oscar.
Rating: 4.25/5
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