Princess Diana was one of the most beloved public figures of her era. Her philanthropic efforts and chic but sophisticated style made her an admired woman for millions worldwide. Princess Diana also served as a role model for the way she handled her tough public marriage to royalty, navigating immense pressure to live up to aristocratic expectations and navigate infidelity. A new film imagines the inner turmoil surrounding the Princess during this time.
Spencer is a reimaging of Christmas 1991, where Princess Diana Spencer (Kristen Stewart), while spending the Christmas holiday with the royal family at Sandringham House, faces an existential crisis over her place within the British royal family and her public image, decides to leave Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) and their marriage.
Because Spencer is another film following a beloved women during a tumultuous time in her life helmed by Pablo Larrain, it may be one’s first instinct to expect it to feel and move similarly to 2016’s Jackie and be just another biopic to enter into the director’s filmography. However, due to the specific kind of mental anguish Princess Diana faced as a princess under intense public scrutiny rather than a grieving widow to a beloved head of state, Spencer surprisingly contains elements of a psychological horror film as we are provided a glimpse into the toll that immense pressure and the power of an aristocracy may possibly have had on the psyche of a young woman as opposed to the strength in the face of grief we were treated to in Jackie. Throughout the film, Diana consistently experiences mild hallucinations and paranoid daydreams surrounding the paranoia and animus she feels from her husband Prince Charles, mother in law Queen Elizabeth II, and the House of Windsor in general. The audience is pulled alongside Diana as she struggles to retain a firm grasp on reality with her anxiety, depression, loneliness, and confusion grow ever stronger. While some enthusiasts of British royals may take issue with the artistic liberties Lorrain takes with Diana’s state of mind and subsequent behavior and moments of self-harm, the choices that the director makes only serves to make the legendary princess’ struggles more empathetic and highlight her mistreatment that led to the decisions we watched from her for the remainder of her tragically short life.
This film is also notable for the stylized way in which Lorrain and director of photography Claire Mathon have shot it, using angles, staging, other camera elements to effectively heighten tension or convey the full emotional spectrum of Diana during a particular moment. One scene sure to be highlighted as more people see this film is a tense conversation and confrontation between Princess Diana and Prince Charles as the couple stands on opposite sides of a billiards table, metaphorically symbolizing the deterioration of their union into an adversarial one. The camera switches back and forth between the two, and the table, and billiard balls as they debate each other’s behavior, the choices made for their family, for Diana’s public image, and Charles’ infidelity. The shifting camera angles, dual focus on the characters and billiard balls ups the intensity of the scene as we’re subconsciously directed to view the quarreling pair as the personification of the balls smacking into each other, jockeying for superiority, with one party obviously more in control than the other. This sort of visual storytelling is consistent throughout Spencer and only serves to bolster the struggle embedded in the script.
Likewise, the film features consistent metaphors throughout meant to parallel Diana’s experiences and journeys in the film, most notably the film’s opening which shows a Diana lost on Sandringham’s grounds after making the decision to independently drive her way to the setting for their Christmas getaway rather than relying on a royal driver, mirroring her feeling lost in life and trying to find her way as considers breaking from the family and becoming her own person. After finding an jacket of her father’s in a field on her childhood home, the rest of the movie shows the coat slowly being restored at Diana’s request, a process that parallels Diana’s restoration of her sanity and her soul.
But lets not kid ourselves, the star of this show and what much of the buzz surrounding Spencer has been powered by is the performance of its lead, one Kristen Stewart. The young actress’ portrayal of Princess Diana is every bit as brilliant as you have heard, doubly so if you still harbor any doubts as to whether she could possibly be that good; she is. Princess Diana is one of the most recognizable humans to ever live and Stewart is able to completely transform herself into the beloved figure. She is able to effectively portray through her acting just how suffocating life under such a bright spotlight must be for a young woman who still hasn’t grown fully into herself. It is immediately apparent that her performance will go down as one of the decade’s best by the time 2030 rolls around.
Spencer is able to play around a bit within the psychological horror genre, but it is ultimately a character focused biopic that serves as a vehicle for its star, which Kristen Stewart knocks out of the park. Pablo Lorrain imbues the film with so visual flair and creativity, but the film’s plot can meander at times leaving us with Stewart’s performance as the only consistently engaging aspect. Still, her performance is so good it must be seen and Lorrain’s direction offers enough quality elements to bolster it at points along the way.
Image: NEON
