Direction: Pablo Larraín
Country: UK / USA / other
The ever-inventive Chilean director Pablo Larraín (The Club, 2015; Neruda, 2016; Ema, 2020) returns to the psychological biographical drama with Spencer, a “fable based on a true tragedy” that fictionalizes the moment when Diana, the late princess of Wales, decided to end her marriage with the unfaithful Prince Charles. If in Jackie (2016), Natalie Portman was cast to play Jackie Onassis with a glare, then Kristen Stewart impersonates Lady Di here with class. The role suits her very well and the resemblance is quite successful.
The year is 1991, and Diana, fed up with the monarchic British traditions and eager to gain her freedom, drives herself to Sandringham Estate to celebrate Christmas with the Royal Family for the last time. A complete misfit, this rule-breaker feels like drowning in cold cynicism, strict etiquette and ceremonial rituals that show that no one is above tradition. There are these hushed, boring meals during which she struggles to hide her bulimia, as well as some dazzling, suffocating moments - recalling Cassavetes - when everything seems to fall apart.
Although there’s an exaggerated buoyancy at times, giving a few scenes a somewhat foolish aspect, the film is not without imagination. Still, Steven Knight’s script hits a few bumps, and Larraín seems undecided now and then if he should emphasize the drama or the comedy, compromising the results with an unbalanced mix of the two.
This artful, well-acted alienation is both clean-cut and oblique, as well as frivolous and amusing in spots. A celebration of freedom after all, arranged with majestic settings and dazzlingly filmed with arresting cinematography by Claire Mathon (Portrait of a Lady on Fire; Atlantics).
