The Favourite (2018) Movie Parents Guide: Age Rating, Violence, Language, Sexual Content, and Scary Scenes

The Favourite (2018) is not made for children or young teens, and parents should treat it as adults-only viewing. This parents guide explains its adult age rating, strong sexual content, harsh language, cruel power games, and disturbing scenes. The Favourite is a period black comedy-drama about Queen Anne and two women competing for her favor in early 18th-century England. Its palace setting looks elegant, but its themes are jealousy, manipulation, sex, and political control.

What is the age rating?
How strong is the sexual content?
What kind of language will children hear?
Is there violence or physical harm?
Are there scary or upsetting scenes?

What is the age rating?

The film is rated R in the United States for strong sexual content, nudity, and language. In the United Kingdom it carries a 15 rating, which bars younger children from cinema screenings. Those ratings signal sustained adult material rather than one brief scene.

Parents should not treat it like a costume drama suitable for school-age children. The tone also matters for maturity. Characters use formal manners to insult, threaten, and control each other, which younger viewers may find confusing or upsetting.

How strong is the sexual content?

Sex is central to the story and appears often. The film includes same-sex relationships, nudity, masturbation, implied threesomes, and transactional sex used to gain power. Nudity includes exposed breasts, buttocks, and implied sexual activity.

Some scenes are played for comedy, while others show jealousy, pressure, or emotional dependence. Parents should expect frank talk about bodies, desire, and favors. Teens unfamiliar with adult relationships will miss much of the manipulation behind these encounters.

What kind of language will children hear?

The dialogue uses frequent strong profanity, including repeated use of the f-word and other sexual and vulgar insults. Cruel name-calling is common during court arguments. The language sounds modern and deliberately blunt against the palace backdrop.

It is meant to shock and to show contempt, not merely to add color. Younger viewers also face constant verbal cruelty. Characters mock illness, disability, appearance, grief, and social rank to win favor with the queen.

Is there violence or physical harm?

Physical violence is less frequent than sexual and verbal material, but it is sharp when it appears. Scenes include slapping, shoving, poisoning, a shooting during a hunt, and cruelty to animals such as ducks and rabbits. One storyline involves slow poisoning through food and tea.

Another shows a character being pushed, restrained, or struck during fits of anger. Medical suffering is also shown. The queen endures gout, painful legs, childbirth grief, and difficulty walking, often while others ignore or exploit her pain.

Are there scary or upsetting scenes?

The film has little horror-style fright, but many scenes feel tense or bleak. Watch for: Children sensitive to bullying may react strongly to the court games.

Adults compete by lying, spying, stealing letters, turning servants against rivals, and punishing kindness. Older teens may understand the satire, but the mix of comedy and cruelty can still disturb. Parents who consider allowing a mature teen to watch should preview the film first and discuss consent, rivalry, and exploitation afterward.

sudden shouting, humiliation, and betrayal among close companions
confinement, illness, vomiting, blood, and visible leg sores
animals being harmed or held as symbols of loss
a lonely, controlling ending focused on power rather than love