By Spencer is a film with the nerve and imagination to take on our media-constructed people’s princesses. It shows her as a flesh-and-blood woman who struggled with her role, even at Christmas. At Sandringham, she’s surrounded by domineering men and archaic protocol. She hallucinates the ghost of Anne Boleyn and takes garden clippers to her arm.
Kristen Stewart
In Spencer, Kristen Stewart proves she can turn down the edge that made her a star and still deliver a forceful performance. She captures Diana’s breathy voice, her head tilt, and the sense of her being pushed into a role she’s not ready to play. She’s at war with her body as well, jostling against the imposed rules for everything from outfit selection to the daily weigh-in that is meant to keep her slim.
Larrain doesn’t provide the expected Princess Diana story, skipping over her courtship and fairy-tale wedding to chart her fraught marriage with Charles (a cold Jack Farthing). Instead, he shows her as a woman losing control of her life and body to a ruthless authoritarian cabal.
Almost like a companion piece to 2016’s Jackie, Spencer is a fable from a true tragedy that allows Stewart to shine. She is, as ever, irresistible. The movie is available on gomovies app to watch. The good intentions of everyone involved can’t make up for it.
Pablo Larrain
With Spencer, Chilean director Pablo Larrain (“Jackie”), working from a script by Steven Knight, delivers a cinematic portrait of the princess that approaches her with a healthy dose of skepticism. Unlike his 2016 film about Jacqueline Kennedy, which used framing devices and fleshed-out flashbacks to break up the narrative’s immediate present, Spencer stays locked in Diana’s headspace for most of the running time.
Rather than using Diana as a footnote to the fanciful monarchist mumbo-jumbo of Netflix’s The Crown, Larrain gives us a character study that uses Diana’s abuse at the hands of the Windsors as its narrative engine.
The film’s ghastly setting—Sandringham’s chilly holiday retreat—is perfect for portraying Diana’s existential breakdown. Larrain’s camera jostles her against the walls like Isabelle Adjani in Possession and his long shots through corridors and hallways have a Kubrickian symmetry that echoes, perhaps unconsciously, The Shining.
The Royal Family
The latest trailer for Pablo Larrain’s upcoming biopic Spencer gives audiences an even closer look at Kristen Stewart’s incredible transformation into Princess Diana. The film takes place over a single weekend during the 1991 Christmas period as the “People’s Princess” navigates her strained relationship with Prince Charles.
The film presents Diana as a woman stuck in a loveless marriage to a diffident stick of a man who openly betrays her with his mistress Camilla Parker Bowles. The premise isn’t exactly new, but Larrain’s desire to create an intense, visceral film at the expense of context robs the story of its power.
It also reduces a complex and beloved figure to an eating disorder and a series of twitches, making her into a self-preoccupied nuisance that the film’s writers would like us to sympathize with. It’s a disservice to Stewart’s considerable talents and an insult to history. Spencer opens in cinemas on Nov 5. Watch the trailer above.
Theme
Spencer is not your prototypical biopic, but then again neither is its director, Chilean auteur Pablo Larrain. His films—including his 2016 depiction of Jackie Kennedy following the assassination of Jackie or poet Pablo Neruda on the run from Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet in Neruda—are bleak, you-are-there voyeuristic portraits of individuals living through a fateful moment of truth and transition.
Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has composed a genre-bending soundtrack for the film that combines free jazz with classical baroque music. The film’s opening track, “Arrival,” begins with menacing pipe organs before shifting into a rich orchestral arrangement of strings and trumpets.
Throughout the film, Greenwood’s score evokes the forlorn elegance of Diana’s disintegrating world. The motif recalls Greenwood’s work on the acclaimed Paul Thomas Anderson period dramas Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood, and Norwegian Wood. It’s a fittingly mournful accompaniment to a film that asks audiences to confront the real-life horror of mental illness.
Conclusion:
“Spencer” is a captivating and thought-provoking film that leaves a lasting impact. With brilliant performances and a gripping story, it delves deep into the complexities of Princess Diana’s life, offering a fresh and intimate perspective.
The movie skillfully explores themes of identity, loneliness, and societal expectations, leaving viewers with a profound sense of empathy and understanding. “Spencer” is a cinematic masterpiece that should not be missed by any film enthusiast or admirer of Princess Diana’s legacy.
