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Review: The Favourite (2018)
Fascinating movie. I really enjoyed it. The writing was really interesting. The premise was really fun too and I hope that we get to see more movies and shows that explore what's explored in this movie. I recommend it!
Spoilers.
Story
The gist of the story is that Sarah and Abigail vie to be Queen Anne's "favourite."
Sarah had the advantage of being childhood friends with Sarah. She was around nobility from a young age and so I think that also made her well-versed in politics. As we saw in the movie, she was effectively running the country in Queen Anne's stead.
Abigail was a breath of fresh air. She was young and eager to please. As a maid and not a lady, she had all the time in the world to please Queen Anne to the fullest, telling her whatever she needed.
Sarah told Abigail that they were playing different games, and I think it is true. In my opinion, Sarah liked power, whereas Abigail just liked being rich and comfortable.
After Sarah began to fall, there was no stopping. Abigail falsified embezzlement claims, and burned all of the letters that Sarah wrote to Queen Anne. She succeeded in Queen Anne's complete dismissal of Sarah. That being said, unlike Sarah, Abigail neglected to maintain Queen Anne's affection for her. Sarah's power had as much longevity as it did because it was always a game of push and pull to keep Anne longing for her. However, Abigail completely neglected Queen Anne after she had gained what she wanted. She'd only married her husband to become a lady, and we saw that she mostly spent her time in debauchery. Come to think of it, I wonder if she'd been embezzling money and blamed it on Sarah.
Abigail couldn't play the long con because none of her lie was based on the truth. Sarah's affection for Anne was based on some truth; they were childhood friends and Sarah did love Anne to some degree, even if it wasn't as intense a love as Queen Anne may have believed. Maybe she loved her as a friend, or as a protector. However, from beginning to end, Abigail only ever saw her as a tool to get her what she wanted. What Abigail did was basically the equivalent of love-bombing and then neglecting her lover.
At the end of the movie, though Sarah was completely out of the picture, Abigail was falling out of favour as well, especially since Anne caught her stepping on one of her rabbits. Though Queen Anne was in ill health (I think she had a stroke as half of her face was drooping), but everything Abigail had was given to her by the Queen, and the Queen could take that back. On the contrary, while Sarah gained much by being the Queen's favourite, she also gained much on her own, through her own marriage and political alliances.
And as we saw from Anne, she'd become hateful. Her mindset is undoubtedly complex as she was the being used by everybody around her and yet she was technically the one with power. And now she was going to use that power to push everybody away from her. It was a very "nobody wins" kind of ending. Maybe Sarah won, as she had seen this coming. But Abigail did not win and Queen Anne definitely did not win.
The writing was pretty interesting. Having watched a few Lanthimos movies, I think he likes very efficient scripts where every sentence has meaning, and that was reflected here. As much as possible was shown rather than told.
The dialogoue itself was quite witty too. The script took advantage of double meanings which I found quite amusing and efficient. For instance, when Sarah was advising Abigail on how to serve the Queen, they were shooting. Sarah advised Abigail to shoot her shot (at the duck), which could be a double meaning for Abigail to shoot her shot in becoming the favourite. Things like that.
Overall, interesting story and well-written. Having done a bit of reading on historical context, I find this story even more fascinating.
Production
This movie was a little bit different from previous Lanthimos movies that I'd watched, but some similarities remained.
In Lanthimos' movies, I'd always come to expect characters with very deadpan delivery which was usually very surreal. I was surprised to see more expressive acting in this movie. Perhaps it was because the romance was a major element, so Lanthimos had to get us invested in the relationship.
Otherwise, there was still an element of surrealism and isolation that persisted throughout the movie that was expressed in other ways. For example, that dance scene in which Sarah danced with a lord was extremely surreal because they were dancing in very modern and odd dance moves while everybody watched.
In addition, the fish eye lens was often used in long corridors. I'm not completely sure of the purpose of that, but it added to the atmosphere. Perhaps it was meant to reflect Queen Anne's distorted perception.
I thought the acting was alright. It didn't blow me away, but it served its purpose.
Characters
Queen Anne
I think this movie was labelled a black comedy particularly because of its portrayal of Queen Anne. She was shown to be extremely needy and easily swayed, not a strong monarch.
In particular, Anne was always in poor health, so Sarah would always attend meetings on her behalf. Even in private, Sarah was very good at manipulating Anne into agreeing with her own political leanings. When Anne had presented a plan for a new palace to Sarah, Sarah said that Anne was insane because they were still in war, and Anne showed a distinct lack of understanding of how the war was faring.
That being said, I was also quite sympathetic to Queen Anne. She was so lonely. We learned that all of her rabbits represented the children she had lost, either in miscarriage and or in childhood. I didn't even think she necessarily cared for a romantic relationship. I think she just liked having someone who would spend time with her and be nice to her. As we saw in the movie, Sarah was often quite harsh with her in the name of "telling her the truth." I read somewhere that apparently Sarah was known for being very demeaning to Queen Anne. In real life, I wonder if this was a sort of...abusive relationship? Maybe Anne just had no one to hang onto and Sarah was the one person she felt she could trust because they'd been together since their youths.
Abigail was a breath of fresh air. She filled all of the emotional gaps that Sarah left. Whereas Sarah was always out shooting or carrying out political deals, Abigail would spend time with her. While Sarah hated the rabbits, Abigail inquired on them. It was interesting that later, right before Sarah was poisoned, Anne told her to pet the children and Sarah did pet the rabbits, when before she refused to do so. Abigail told Anne everything she wanted to hear, which of course led to Anne wanting to have her around.
When Sarah's position was threatened by Anne, Sarah took a really stronghanded approach to getting Anne to do what she wanted. She literally threatened Anne that she would release their intimate letters if she didn't say what Sarah told her to say. Of course Anne did not take to this well, and Sarah never had a chance after that.
As for Abigail, however, her love bombing was not sustainable. We saw in a scene that she'd gotten extremely rowdy at a party when Anne called on her. Anne was trying to understand certain documents, which is frankly something we'd never seen because Sarah always used to take care of the politics for her. Now that she wasn't here and since Abigail had no interest in such things, Anne had to do them herself. However, what was more disappointing to Anne was probably just that Abigail was a different person. She was always drunk, engaging in debauchery, and their time spent together wasn't like it used to be.
The last straw for Anne was when she saw Abigail stepping on one of the rabbits. Abigail knew what the rabbits meant to Anne and it angered her that Abigail would do such a thing. At the end of the moive, Anne no longer treated Abigail like a favourite, but relegated her back to a maid.
Anne's state of mind is very complex. As a royal, it was impossible for her to ever have a normal life. She was always supposed to be important. Perhaps she liked Sarah because she was the only person who would be rude to her to her face. And over time, it got old when Sarah neglected her. Abigail was a breath of fresh air, but her facade fell fast and very soon, Anne saw that while Abigail was nice to her, she was full of lies, whereas while Sarah was mean to her, she was speaking her truth, which was what Sarah said was a representation of her love.
And by the end of the movie, Anne was alone, having pushed away the person she felt loved her, and surrounding herself with liars.
Sarah Churchill of Marlborough
Sarah was a very manipulative woman. Anne was never without her, and we saw how Sarah took control of every conversation that was directed towards Anne. Whenever Anne was not happy with her, Sarah would always somehow turn it back on Anne, or very quickly change the topic so that Anne would forget. And we later saw that they had a sexual relationship (I read that their sexual relationship was not confirmed historically, but I guess it was a decision on the parts of the writers).
That being said, I did think that Sarah worked hard for her own life outside of the Queen. Though she used the queen a lot to further her own agenda, we saw that she had political allies, such as Lord Godolphin. Even without the queen's favour, she had favour of other allies.
It was actually a little surprising to see that she seemed to have a quite loving relationship with her husband Lord Marlborough, though he seemed to be off at war all the time. Perhaps it was something of a working relationship. Maybe they understood that they both had jobs to do and that's what kept them strong. Even after Sarah was banished, she and Lord Marlborough seemed to be on good terms, agreeing to leave England at the end right before they were informed to be banished.
Sarah said that she and Abigail were playing different games, and it was true. Sarah cared more for the power. I think Sarah's idea of winning was whoever walked away with more. Even without the queen's supprot, Sarah was a lady, married to an accomplished military man. She knew how to run politics. Even though she wouldn't have Anne's backing, she had taken full advantage of her access to Anne to build power and wealth for herself. She had more of a long-term goal in my mind.
Sarah had only written letters to Anne upon urging of Godolphin, who wanted her political support. As we saw, she struggled to as she herself was still quite angry from the situation. Over time, her tone softened and I think she was more open to rekindling her relationship with Anne. But it was no use since Abigail was burning all of her letters. And I think Sarah slowly began to lose hope. By the time she was banished from England, she was done with the country.
I think there is some truth to the fact that Sarah loved the country the most, more than Anne. And at the end of the movie, she was letting go of that love.
Abigail Masham
Abigail was originally a lady but had fallen on hard times due to her father's irresponsible nature. She had come to the palace in search of employment from Lady Sarah. I expected Abigail to soon get involved in the fight for power, and frankly I never really saw her actions as sincere from the beginning. I was already suspicious of her when she picked herbs for Queen Anne's legs. Perhaps it was out of her kind heart, but she had lied to the footman to get in, which led me to believe that she was extremely ambitious even from the get go.
In fact, Abigail was nearly defined by her ambition. She was determined to be a lady again, and maybe even beyond. To her, the sky was the limit. Even when she was still a maid, Abigail overstepped, going so far as to sleep naked in Anne's bed to seduce her, and later coming onto her. Ever since she found out about Sarah and Anne's relationship, her entire demeanour had changed. She was laser focused.
Everybody and everything was just a tool for her to get to the top. Masham, whom she knew liked her, was a way for her to become a lady. But she didn't want only that. She wanted what Sarah had. Harley had previously reached out to her to become her spy and now she was responding, but as an equal who had her own goals.
This might be a bit heavy-handed but when Abigail had decided that she would throw all morality out the window, she'd walked in on Harley and his gang throwing vegetables at a naked man, and I can't help but read that as her walk into immorality.
Though Abigail had replaced Sarah, she didn't know how to keep her position like Sarah did. She knew she wanted to be a powerful lady, but she was still kind of aimless. She just wanted to have parties all day, which makes sense, but is also very short-sighted. Abigail hadn't examined within herself and tried to figure out what it was that she wanted in the long run. Maybe she did want to party like this every day but she didn't put in the work to maintain this possibility in the long run.
After Sarah was out of the way, Abigail completely neglected the queen, going so far as to hurting the rabbits that were so dear to her. Perhaps it was because Abigail was always looking for excitement and in her quest to do so, she forgot that it was the queen that gave her everything she wanted.
I explaind that I believed that Sarah's idea of winning was building wealth and power for herself so that she could walk away feeling comfortable. For Abigail, her idea of winning was simply to displace Sarah. Since she fell out of favour with the queen so fast, we could say that she took down Sarah but she didn't displace her, as Anne clearly did not love Abigail as she loved Sarah. Sarah's influence was so strong that the queen's entire mood was ruined by Sarah's absence.
It's easy to see that after the end of the movie, Abigail will soon fall out of favour. I believe that she does fall out of favour and that Sarah even defends her when she's accused of stealing, but that's not part of the movie.
Themes
Favourite
In a literal sense, Sarah and Abigail are vying for the role of the favourite. During the movie, however, I kind of wondered whether Queen Anne could also be lablled as a favourite as well, since everybody was trying to please her.
Sarah was Queen Anne's favourite in that whatever Sarah wanted, Sarah got. And I guess Sarah led Queen Anne to believe that she gave Anne a purpose in life.
On the other hand, all Abigail did was remove Sarah from power. She didn't hold absolute control over Queen Anne's heart and mind like Sarah did. She had access to material things, but she couldn't touch Queen Anne except superficially, by being nice to her. Of course, all her work was undone when Anne saw how little regard Abigail had for her beloved rabbits.
Class differences
Sarah and Abigail came from very different backgrounds. Sarah grew up a lady, was probably arranged a nice marriage by her family, and she was in this sphere of nobility her entire life.
On the other hand, Abigail had grown up on tough times. She was used to using tricks to get what she needed, maybe food or shelter.
So it made sense that Sarah, from a wealthier background, was used to thinking more in the long term. Rich people are accustomed to long-term savings or investment plans and the like, which was what Sarah was doing.
On the other hand, Abigail was always thinking about the short-term rewards. She'd gotten married to Masham to earn herself a ladyship and yet we saw that on their wedding night she had no attraction to him. At the party, she was hitting up other men. Abigail didn't realize that her entire wealth and power were granted by the queen. Even her marriage was allowed by the queen. And the queen could take it away. She was entirely at the queen's mercy, because without the queen, she would be back to being a maid.
Overall
Really interesting movie. I'm super interested in reading more about the relationships between these historical figures. I've enjoyed all of Lanthimos' movies that I've seen so far and I look forward to seeing more.
Spoilers.
Story
The gist of the story is that Sarah and Abigail vie to be Queen Anne's "favourite."
Sarah had the advantage of being childhood friends with Sarah. She was around nobility from a young age and so I think that also made her well-versed in politics. As we saw in the movie, she was effectively running the country in Queen Anne's stead.
Abigail was a breath of fresh air. She was young and eager to please. As a maid and not a lady, she had all the time in the world to please Queen Anne to the fullest, telling her whatever she needed.
Sarah told Abigail that they were playing different games, and I think it is true. In my opinion, Sarah liked power, whereas Abigail just liked being rich and comfortable.
After Sarah began to fall, there was no stopping. Abigail falsified embezzlement claims, and burned all of the letters that Sarah wrote to Queen Anne. She succeeded in Queen Anne's complete dismissal of Sarah. That being said, unlike Sarah, Abigail neglected to maintain Queen Anne's affection for her. Sarah's power had as much longevity as it did because it was always a game of push and pull to keep Anne longing for her. However, Abigail completely neglected Queen Anne after she had gained what she wanted. She'd only married her husband to become a lady, and we saw that she mostly spent her time in debauchery. Come to think of it, I wonder if she'd been embezzling money and blamed it on Sarah.
Abigail couldn't play the long con because none of her lie was based on the truth. Sarah's affection for Anne was based on some truth; they were childhood friends and Sarah did love Anne to some degree, even if it wasn't as intense a love as Queen Anne may have believed. Maybe she loved her as a friend, or as a protector. However, from beginning to end, Abigail only ever saw her as a tool to get her what she wanted. What Abigail did was basically the equivalent of love-bombing and then neglecting her lover.
At the end of the movie, though Sarah was completely out of the picture, Abigail was falling out of favour as well, especially since Anne caught her stepping on one of her rabbits. Though Queen Anne was in ill health (I think she had a stroke as half of her face was drooping), but everything Abigail had was given to her by the Queen, and the Queen could take that back. On the contrary, while Sarah gained much by being the Queen's favourite, she also gained much on her own, through her own marriage and political alliances.
And as we saw from Anne, she'd become hateful. Her mindset is undoubtedly complex as she was the being used by everybody around her and yet she was technically the one with power. And now she was going to use that power to push everybody away from her. It was a very "nobody wins" kind of ending. Maybe Sarah won, as she had seen this coming. But Abigail did not win and Queen Anne definitely did not win.
The writing was pretty interesting. Having watched a few Lanthimos movies, I think he likes very efficient scripts where every sentence has meaning, and that was reflected here. As much as possible was shown rather than told.
The dialogoue itself was quite witty too. The script took advantage of double meanings which I found quite amusing and efficient. For instance, when Sarah was advising Abigail on how to serve the Queen, they were shooting. Sarah advised Abigail to shoot her shot (at the duck), which could be a double meaning for Abigail to shoot her shot in becoming the favourite. Things like that.
Overall, interesting story and well-written. Having done a bit of reading on historical context, I find this story even more fascinating.
Production
This movie was a little bit different from previous Lanthimos movies that I'd watched, but some similarities remained.
In Lanthimos' movies, I'd always come to expect characters with very deadpan delivery which was usually very surreal. I was surprised to see more expressive acting in this movie. Perhaps it was because the romance was a major element, so Lanthimos had to get us invested in the relationship.
Otherwise, there was still an element of surrealism and isolation that persisted throughout the movie that was expressed in other ways. For example, that dance scene in which Sarah danced with a lord was extremely surreal because they were dancing in very modern and odd dance moves while everybody watched.
In addition, the fish eye lens was often used in long corridors. I'm not completely sure of the purpose of that, but it added to the atmosphere. Perhaps it was meant to reflect Queen Anne's distorted perception.
I thought the acting was alright. It didn't blow me away, but it served its purpose.
Characters
Queen Anne
I think this movie was labelled a black comedy particularly because of its portrayal of Queen Anne. She was shown to be extremely needy and easily swayed, not a strong monarch.
In particular, Anne was always in poor health, so Sarah would always attend meetings on her behalf. Even in private, Sarah was very good at manipulating Anne into agreeing with her own political leanings. When Anne had presented a plan for a new palace to Sarah, Sarah said that Anne was insane because they were still in war, and Anne showed a distinct lack of understanding of how the war was faring.
That being said, I was also quite sympathetic to Queen Anne. She was so lonely. We learned that all of her rabbits represented the children she had lost, either in miscarriage and or in childhood. I didn't even think she necessarily cared for a romantic relationship. I think she just liked having someone who would spend time with her and be nice to her. As we saw in the movie, Sarah was often quite harsh with her in the name of "telling her the truth." I read somewhere that apparently Sarah was known for being very demeaning to Queen Anne. In real life, I wonder if this was a sort of...abusive relationship? Maybe Anne just had no one to hang onto and Sarah was the one person she felt she could trust because they'd been together since their youths.
Abigail was a breath of fresh air. She filled all of the emotional gaps that Sarah left. Whereas Sarah was always out shooting or carrying out political deals, Abigail would spend time with her. While Sarah hated the rabbits, Abigail inquired on them. It was interesting that later, right before Sarah was poisoned, Anne told her to pet the children and Sarah did pet the rabbits, when before she refused to do so. Abigail told Anne everything she wanted to hear, which of course led to Anne wanting to have her around.
When Sarah's position was threatened by Anne, Sarah took a really stronghanded approach to getting Anne to do what she wanted. She literally threatened Anne that she would release their intimate letters if she didn't say what Sarah told her to say. Of course Anne did not take to this well, and Sarah never had a chance after that.
As for Abigail, however, her love bombing was not sustainable. We saw in a scene that she'd gotten extremely rowdy at a party when Anne called on her. Anne was trying to understand certain documents, which is frankly something we'd never seen because Sarah always used to take care of the politics for her. Now that she wasn't here and since Abigail had no interest in such things, Anne had to do them herself. However, what was more disappointing to Anne was probably just that Abigail was a different person. She was always drunk, engaging in debauchery, and their time spent together wasn't like it used to be.
The last straw for Anne was when she saw Abigail stepping on one of the rabbits. Abigail knew what the rabbits meant to Anne and it angered her that Abigail would do such a thing. At the end of the moive, Anne no longer treated Abigail like a favourite, but relegated her back to a maid.
Anne's state of mind is very complex. As a royal, it was impossible for her to ever have a normal life. She was always supposed to be important. Perhaps she liked Sarah because she was the only person who would be rude to her to her face. And over time, it got old when Sarah neglected her. Abigail was a breath of fresh air, but her facade fell fast and very soon, Anne saw that while Abigail was nice to her, she was full of lies, whereas while Sarah was mean to her, she was speaking her truth, which was what Sarah said was a representation of her love.
And by the end of the movie, Anne was alone, having pushed away the person she felt loved her, and surrounding herself with liars.
Sarah Churchill of Marlborough
Sarah was a very manipulative woman. Anne was never without her, and we saw how Sarah took control of every conversation that was directed towards Anne. Whenever Anne was not happy with her, Sarah would always somehow turn it back on Anne, or very quickly change the topic so that Anne would forget. And we later saw that they had a sexual relationship (I read that their sexual relationship was not confirmed historically, but I guess it was a decision on the parts of the writers).
That being said, I did think that Sarah worked hard for her own life outside of the Queen. Though she used the queen a lot to further her own agenda, we saw that she had political allies, such as Lord Godolphin. Even without the queen's favour, she had favour of other allies.
It was actually a little surprising to see that she seemed to have a quite loving relationship with her husband Lord Marlborough, though he seemed to be off at war all the time. Perhaps it was something of a working relationship. Maybe they understood that they both had jobs to do and that's what kept them strong. Even after Sarah was banished, she and Lord Marlborough seemed to be on good terms, agreeing to leave England at the end right before they were informed to be banished.
Sarah said that she and Abigail were playing different games, and it was true. Sarah cared more for the power. I think Sarah's idea of winning was whoever walked away with more. Even without the queen's supprot, Sarah was a lady, married to an accomplished military man. She knew how to run politics. Even though she wouldn't have Anne's backing, she had taken full advantage of her access to Anne to build power and wealth for herself. She had more of a long-term goal in my mind.
Sarah had only written letters to Anne upon urging of Godolphin, who wanted her political support. As we saw, she struggled to as she herself was still quite angry from the situation. Over time, her tone softened and I think she was more open to rekindling her relationship with Anne. But it was no use since Abigail was burning all of her letters. And I think Sarah slowly began to lose hope. By the time she was banished from England, she was done with the country.
I think there is some truth to the fact that Sarah loved the country the most, more than Anne. And at the end of the movie, she was letting go of that love.
Abigail Masham
Abigail was originally a lady but had fallen on hard times due to her father's irresponsible nature. She had come to the palace in search of employment from Lady Sarah. I expected Abigail to soon get involved in the fight for power, and frankly I never really saw her actions as sincere from the beginning. I was already suspicious of her when she picked herbs for Queen Anne's legs. Perhaps it was out of her kind heart, but she had lied to the footman to get in, which led me to believe that she was extremely ambitious even from the get go.
In fact, Abigail was nearly defined by her ambition. She was determined to be a lady again, and maybe even beyond. To her, the sky was the limit. Even when she was still a maid, Abigail overstepped, going so far as to sleep naked in Anne's bed to seduce her, and later coming onto her. Ever since she found out about Sarah and Anne's relationship, her entire demeanour had changed. She was laser focused.
Everybody and everything was just a tool for her to get to the top. Masham, whom she knew liked her, was a way for her to become a lady. But she didn't want only that. She wanted what Sarah had. Harley had previously reached out to her to become her spy and now she was responding, but as an equal who had her own goals.
This might be a bit heavy-handed but when Abigail had decided that she would throw all morality out the window, she'd walked in on Harley and his gang throwing vegetables at a naked man, and I can't help but read that as her walk into immorality.
Though Abigail had replaced Sarah, she didn't know how to keep her position like Sarah did. She knew she wanted to be a powerful lady, but she was still kind of aimless. She just wanted to have parties all day, which makes sense, but is also very short-sighted. Abigail hadn't examined within herself and tried to figure out what it was that she wanted in the long run. Maybe she did want to party like this every day but she didn't put in the work to maintain this possibility in the long run.
After Sarah was out of the way, Abigail completely neglected the queen, going so far as to hurting the rabbits that were so dear to her. Perhaps it was because Abigail was always looking for excitement and in her quest to do so, she forgot that it was the queen that gave her everything she wanted.
I explaind that I believed that Sarah's idea of winning was building wealth and power for herself so that she could walk away feeling comfortable. For Abigail, her idea of winning was simply to displace Sarah. Since she fell out of favour with the queen so fast, we could say that she took down Sarah but she didn't displace her, as Anne clearly did not love Abigail as she loved Sarah. Sarah's influence was so strong that the queen's entire mood was ruined by Sarah's absence.
It's easy to see that after the end of the movie, Abigail will soon fall out of favour. I believe that she does fall out of favour and that Sarah even defends her when she's accused of stealing, but that's not part of the movie.
Themes
Favourite
In a literal sense, Sarah and Abigail are vying for the role of the favourite. During the movie, however, I kind of wondered whether Queen Anne could also be lablled as a favourite as well, since everybody was trying to please her.
Sarah was Queen Anne's favourite in that whatever Sarah wanted, Sarah got. And I guess Sarah led Queen Anne to believe that she gave Anne a purpose in life.
On the other hand, all Abigail did was remove Sarah from power. She didn't hold absolute control over Queen Anne's heart and mind like Sarah did. She had access to material things, but she couldn't touch Queen Anne except superficially, by being nice to her. Of course, all her work was undone when Anne saw how little regard Abigail had for her beloved rabbits.
Class differences
Sarah and Abigail came from very different backgrounds. Sarah grew up a lady, was probably arranged a nice marriage by her family, and she was in this sphere of nobility her entire life.
On the other hand, Abigail had grown up on tough times. She was used to using tricks to get what she needed, maybe food or shelter.
So it made sense that Sarah, from a wealthier background, was used to thinking more in the long term. Rich people are accustomed to long-term savings or investment plans and the like, which was what Sarah was doing.
On the other hand, Abigail was always thinking about the short-term rewards. She'd gotten married to Masham to earn herself a ladyship and yet we saw that on their wedding night she had no attraction to him. At the party, she was hitting up other men. Abigail didn't realize that her entire wealth and power were granted by the queen. Even her marriage was allowed by the queen. And the queen could take it away. She was entirely at the queen's mercy, because without the queen, she would be back to being a maid.
Overall
Really interesting movie. I'm super interested in reading more about the relationships between these historical figures. I've enjoyed all of Lanthimos' movies that I've seen so far and I look forward to seeing more.