Yes! I loved that the relationships were real and messy and complicated, and I wholly agree with your point that they weren't "sexy" in the way f/f is almost always presented, despite the fact that there were some extremely attractive women running around that movie (will I ever be over Rachel Weisz in those costumes? Probably not). It presets, as you say, a perfect counterpoint to both the misery and death f/f storyline and the cookie-cutter everything must be perfect and fluffy storyline.
I think you've also hit on why I'm a little uneasy when people say this movie is about power, even though it absolutely, 100% is--because it creates characters with depth and reasons for why they want the things they want (or don't want the things they don't want, in Anne's case), and it's first and foremost about those people and their wants, which are of course intricately tied up in the balances of power at court. But the film always puts these three women first, and the film's storylines seen to grow out of them, rather then their characters being dictated by what the film is "about." (And I too am so glad that they presented Sarah's feelings for Anne as entirely real, if very complex--it added another layer to the movie that I love and appreciate.)
it's queer women who get to be selfish and mean and ugly but in ways unconnected to their queerness, where if anything that queerness can represent a hidden good side them? Oh yes, this is it entirely--they get to be people, whose queerness is integral to them (at least for Anne and Sarah) but not their defining trait. And the idea of queerness as somehow redemptive is one I love, and will definitely be thinking further about.
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I think you've also hit on why I'm a little uneasy when people say this movie is about power, even though it absolutely, 100% is--because it creates characters with depth and reasons for why they want the things they want (or don't want the things they don't want, in Anne's case), and it's first and foremost about those people and their wants, which are of course intricately tied up in the balances of power at court. But the film always puts these three women first, and the film's storylines seen to grow out of them, rather then their characters being dictated by what the film is "about." (And I too am so glad that they presented Sarah's feelings for Anne as entirely real, if very complex--it added another layer to the movie that I love and appreciate.)
it's queer women who get to be selfish and mean and ugly but in ways unconnected to their queerness, where if anything that queerness can represent a hidden good side them? Oh yes, this is it entirely--they get to be people, whose queerness is integral to them (at least for Anne and Sarah) but not their defining trait. And the idea of queerness as somehow redemptive is one I love, and will definitely be thinking further about.