Spencer

It's December 1991. The British royal family is gathering to spend Christmas at a royal estate. The abandoned Spencer estate is nearby. Diana (Kristen Stewart) is driving herself and arrives late. She finds herself more and more isolated. Major Alistar Gregory (Timothy Spall) leads the staff to impose order upon her.

There seems to be a lot of praise for Kristen Stewart's work in this. I can certainly see what she's doing and she's doing a lot of it. Sometimes, people say that an actor disappears into the role. In this one, I never lose sight that this is Kristen Stewart. She is doing her standard jittery demure acting. It always looks like her and her movements. A lot of this rides on her performance and I like it less than most. Timothy Spall is performing through his deliberate gritting teeth. Again, I get the work but I would like less singular mannerisms. As for the story, it hits the broad elements of the situation. I do like the mental health aspect although there is no way to know the truth. This is sensationalized. It would help if the performances are more toned down and normalized especially Kristen. She needs to do less of her jittery demure.

This does feel like an interesting spin on the typical royal period piece. Having the royal family as Diana's horror was a unique framing device, but you really feel like you're getting hit over the head with Diana's trauma for 2 hours.

Even as someone who has watched The Crown, you have to bring in a LOT of prior knowledge about this story to understand everything going on. It's heavy on symbolism and not the most subtle, but Stewart's performance is worthy of the hype and is the main thing to watch here.

6/10 - I really wanted to fall in love with this film, but found it lacking in a lot of the heart it needed to convey this story with the sympathy and genuineness necessary in the story of such a layered and pained woman.

I had a mixed reaction to "Spencer," Pablo Larrain's film about three days in the life of Princess Diana as she's trapped in Windsor over the Christmas holiday with a family who doesn't want her and who she hates. On the one hand, I liked Larrain's decision to give the film a horror movie vibe, as if the demons plaguing Diana are literally real. There have been so many versions of this story, on screen and in print, that what's the point of doing yet another if you're not going to do something daring with it?

But the movie is a bit much to take. It's oppressive, which fits the subject matter, so I get that. But it's also very one note, and worst, it doesn't make Diana come alive as a person or character. You have to bring a lot of knowledge of Diana's story to this movie for it to completely make it worthwhile. Otherwise, you're just stuck with a very bizarre woman wandering around a big house in nice clothes for two hours. You can empathize with her, because she's clearly a very troubled woman going through a crisis, but that doesn't mean you necessarily want to spend time with her.

Kristen Stewart was just nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award at the time I'm writing this comment, and her performance is good I guess. I think she gives the performance Larrain wants her to give. But it's a very weird performance, and extremely hard to warm to.

Sally Hawkins has a smallish role as the only member of the household staff who Diana can deal with, and as always, she carries the movie off with her and made me want it to just be about her instead.

Grade: B.

This is not a traditional biopic, far from it. In fact it all takes place over a three day period during the 1991 version of the annual Royal Family's Christmas at Sandringham Estate. About 10 years after Charles and Diana were married and about six years before Diana would die in the car crash in Paris. It is more of a fictionalized dramatization of what it must have been like for Diana, a caged animal yearning to be free, but confined to the customs and rules of the Royal Family.

There is a conversation in the middle of the movie, Charles explaining to Diana, each member of the Royal Family is two people, the one that reporters and photographers see and the real one. But Diana was unable to fit that mold.

Fine portrayals by all involved, my wife and I enjoyed it at home on DVD from our public library.