The Favourite- how much can you change history?

I tried to watch it on a plane once (not the best screen of course) but gave up after a few minutes.

So many historical films are wildly inaccurate, muddling stories from different centuries in some cases.

I found the film voyeuristic and slightly unpleasant, and full of inaccuracies.
Olivia Coleman was excellent, but I thought Abigail Hill was not sly and duplicitous enough, and Sarah Churchill not nearly as tempestuous as she was made out to be; not their fault, but the script.
A film made to shock, not to improve understanding of a sad and under-rated woman.

shysal

I recorded this, don't think I will bother to watch it now!

I think it is worth watching shysal the three women in it all give great performances and it is gripping. Just don't think that it gives anything like a true account of the time or the people.

I just couldn't imagine giving birth to so many still born children or losing so many after wards. It is just awful isn't it? and I imagine the trauma contributed to her ill heath, how couldn't it?

I do agree it seems like a netflix soft porn version though but I did find it entertaining

It’s not a film I want to watch, after seeing the trailers and all the fuss about the Oscars.

I’ve gone right off Olivia Colman after that silly, drunken acceptance speech.

Think she’s quite over rated.

I recorded this, don't think I will bother to watch it now!

I think Queen Anne's life was ridden with tragedy, seventeen children and only one survived until 11 or so, she must have been permanently heartbroken. I also read that she and her husband, George of Denmark I think ? were close, after all they had to bear all that unhappiness jointly. I read a really good book about her and her sister Mary "Ungrateful Daughters" which was about their relationship with their father, James 11 who felt his daughters had turned against him, lots of extracts from their letters to and from each other. I've also read a long time ago a book or two with regards to her relationships with both Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill who supplanted the former in the affections of Queen Anne.

I wasn't too keen on the film either.

I thought it was weird, especially the bit where the politicians were throwing oranges at a naked man. I just couldn't understand that.

I did enjoy Jean Plaidy's book, I think it was called 'The Queen's Favourites.' It portrayed Abigail Hill / Masham as far less calculating and ambitious than she seemed in the film.

Thanks I'm so pleased to find agreement. I thought the acting was tremendous but so wasted on that story. I'm just looking things up and I think the political angle has been so lost. These were three women influencing politics at a time when men ran things. And of course they couldn't just be friends could they?

I switched it off after a while, because I wanted to go to sleep. If it had finished earlier I might have persisted.

When I was at school in the 1950s we (well, the older ones, not me) performed a play called Viceroy Sarah, on the same subject.

Same here, utter load of rubbish. Nice to be able to agree

On this we agree trisher I really disliked this film.