Three days in the life of Princess Diana of Wales, alias Spencer, around Christmas 1 9 9 1. While the staff is preparing dinners at the Sandringham castle, Diana is plagued by depression and anxiety. Her relationship with Prince Charles is disintegrating, so she spends her time plays with her sons William and Harry or wondering off around the her former estate when she was a child, taking a jacket from a scarecrow in the field. Diana has hallucinations and contemplates suicide. Her dresser Maggie admits she is in love with her. Diana walks in front of the hunters who were firing at pheasants, and orders William and Harry to leave the guns and abandon the hunt. Diana takes her chilren to London for hamburgers.
You would not know Diana, Princess of Wales, is one of the most beloved and affectionate celebrities based on Pablo Larrain's film "Spencer" alone. Larrain presents her as a confused, demented, mentally-ill and unstable woman who occasionally swears using the "F" word and says this to an assistant in her room: "Now leave me. I wish to masturbate. You can tell everyone I said that". It is understandable that she feels lost in a foreign world as a civilian in the Royal family, neglected by husband Prince Charles, but this doesn't always translate naturally to justify some of her confusing actions. The movie is a mess. Its only undoubtable virtue is the excellent performance by Kristen Stewart in the leading role, who even has an impeccable British accent—yet one wishes she was in a better movie. It's almost as if the movie itself is in her way.
The script by Steven Knight is episodic and all over the place, unable to craft a linear storyline. It also shows some of Diana's hallucinations—in one of them, during a dinner, she imagines seeing Anne Boleyn, the 16th century Queen beheaded by Henry VIII, at the table. Diana then imagines eating pearls from her necklace in the soup, then tumbling across the hallway and ultimately throwing up in the toilet. Knight takes more license to invent stuff of what Diana ostensibly felt than he has right to. The best moments are when Diana is simply allowed to be herself, a kind person, such as when she talks to a pheasant while sitting in the garden, or when her dresser Maggie (Sally Hawkins) admits at the beach: "I've never told you this and it probably means you'll have to fire me, but... well, actually I'm in love with you", causing Diana to start giggling. But Maggie then actually sums up everything about Diana's trauma in a serious observations: "F*** doctors. What you need is love". The last 20 minutes are thus the most focused and meaningful parts of the movie, since this observation resonates with Diana's erratic behavior, and shows her in a more sane, genuine edition when she forbids her sons William and Harry to shoot with hunters at pheasants. It is indicative that right at the end the viewers feel a sense of sadness that they are leaving this character behind, since it stems from the impression that we would have wanted to see Diana in some other story than this.
Grade:++
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