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“Spencer,” a film by Pablo Larran, is a haunting reimagining of a tense Christmas holiday in the life of Princess Diana that is both moving and disturbing. Although you are aware of this, it will not fully prepare you for what you are about to witness. It is a dream sequence-filled film with internal and externalized pain, metaphor-heavy dialogue, and Kristen Stewart brooding sensuously under a variety of different hats and Diana’s signature short bob haircut that is Larran’s vision. While the film strives to immerse its audience in its heroine’s state of mind, it also strives to capture the atmosphere of the early 1990s and the point in the royal relationship when things begin to fall apart as well.
Written by Steven Knight, “Spencer” introduces itself to its audience with the phrase “A fable from a true tragedy,” establishing the expectation that what we are about to witness is more fiction than reality. Despite her best efforts, Princess Diana (Stewart) is late to the start of the holiday festivities. She becomes disoriented in the neighborhood where she grew up as a neighbor of the royal family, a symbol of how she has lost parts of herself over the years as she has tried to live up to the high expectations placed on her. She is greeted by a stern-looking former military officer (Timothy Spall), who serves as the royal family’s eyes and ears once she arrives on royal grounds. There’s nothing she can do to prevent him from finding out. Diana, now that she has reunited with her sons William (Jack Nielen) and Harry (Freddie Spry), tries to maintain a brave face, despite the fact that she is aware that her husband Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) is involved in an extramarital affair. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for her to cope with her anxiety and depression. She begins to see the ghost of Anne Boleyn (Amy Manson), the former wife of Henry VIII who was beheaded so that her husband could marry his mistress, as a harbinger of what is about to happen to her. When Diana needs someone to lean on, Maggie (Sally Hawkins) is there for her. However, just when Diana needs her, Maggie is pulled away by someone else. With her privacy violated both outside and inside the opulent estate, Diana feels as if the walls of the palatial home are closing in on her as she loses her grasp on reality until she is able to escape and save herself.
Larran has become increasingly interested in women who are held captive by societal cages and how they manage to find a way out. Natalie Portman’s tear-stained and bloodstained performance as the First Lady in “Jackie” in 2016 was a memorable moment. Afterwards, his sexually charged drama “Ema,” which centered on a street dancer who defied convention and polite society, as well as her choreographer who became her controlling romantic partner, was released. “Spencer” has a lot in common with “Jackie,” namely the suffocating expectations placed on famous women who dress in designer clothes and live in mansions. However, while they may appear to the outside world to have it all, the reality is much more tragic: their cages may be gilded, but they are still cages.
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The most recent addition to that cage is Kristen Stewart, who portrays a melancholy Diana in a performance that is sure to divide Diana’s defenders. Some of her actions, as well as her accent, are a bit hit-and-miss. The film appears to reduce her to a childish state at times, as she throws a tantrum when she is denied the opportunity to do anything else with her life. Knight’s dialogue can be blunt and surface-level at times, and he doesn’t always give Stewart enough room to express himself with nuance and depth. Until she finds a way out of the royals’ clutches, much of her performance can be described as doomed brooding or royal “Melancholia,” in which she is unable to pull herself out of that state.
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A straightforward interpretation of the princess’ dissatisfaction with traditions and holiday pageantry would be to read Larran’s vision as a satire. However, it is during the first dinner that the audience is given its first indication that this is not your typical biopic: a displeased Diana becomes sickened by the pearls she is forced to wear by her husband—a set of pearls which she knows were also given to his mistress—and snaps the necklace, sending the pearls all over her, including into her pea soup, which is then thrown away. Then she proceeds to eat one of the pearls, painfully cracking it open with her teeth, before the next shot shows her fleeing in agony from the situation. Now, the imagined eating of the pearls can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but the physical pain of sitting through a dinner with her cheating husband across the table has an effect on her. She intends to make the audience feel uncomfortable by blending her real and imagined anguish, and she is successful in this endeavor as well.
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It was composer Jonny Greenwood who was tasked with creating the increasingly unnerving soundtrack for the film in order to immerse the audience in Diana’s disintegrating mental state. The score includes everything from high-pitched strings to the clinking of glass chimes, and it serves to demonstrate Diana’s overwhelming experience. Claire Mathon (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” “Atlantics”), a renowned cinematographer, recreates the slightly faded look of vintage photographs from the era, visually matching the scenery and costumes.
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A fashion flashback sequence near the end of the film shows Diana in some of her most famous outfits, including her wedding gown, from her younger years. This sequence takes place after she has been denied the opportunity to return to her childhood home. She decides to go anyway and take a look at the ruins of her former girlhood. Creating the illusion of a fashion shoot out of a collection of outfits designed by Jacqueline Durran, Larran and Mathon have created a dizzying experience for us. Production design for the royal’s vacation home by Guy Hendrix Dya is the most literal interpretation of Larran’s concept of a gilded cage that has yet been created. It is rich in detail and dripping with a sense of grandeur. However, when Diana and her children complain that it is too cold, no one is willing to turn the heat up to accommodate their needs. Another metaphor in this decadent fairy tale, which was inspired by the public’s ongoing fascination with a woman who never had much opportunity to enjoy her life outside of her gilded cage.
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On September 5th, this review was submitted in conjunction with the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. It is currently only available in theaters.
For more personality quizzes check this: The Many Saints Of Newark Quiz.
