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A distant poetic investigation of Princess Diana
Spencer is a film by director Pablo Larrain, coming off the heels of Jackie (a quiet bio-pic of Jackie Kennedy set after her husband’s assassination). Larrain is carving a niche in films about women dealing with the traumas and horrors of fame and inherited royalty.
Spencer plays incredibly distant, poetic, and vacant at times. This is not a film meant to entertain but is much more of a mood piece. Those looking for a straight-line narrative and a typical conflict/resolution may be left wanting and completely disappointed by its daydream/nightmarish qualities.
Let’s begin with the central plot, which is incredibly thin. This film takes place over a few days around the royal family’s Christmas festivities. Princess Diana played incredibly by Kristen Stewart is dealing with many issues, some psychological, some emotional, and some physical which become the best parts of this film.
The way the film portrays anxiety, depression, loneliness, constriction, containment, and especially self-inflicted pain and the horror of eating disorders is raw and feels real. The visuals, score, and performances all synergistically drive this home.
The visuals, with cinematography by Claire Mathon, are simply gorgeous to see. The film grain offered by the 16mm and 35mm film adds a deep texture to each image. And the bright washed out expired quality of its colors amplifies the time period and emotion. The soft subdued ghastly focus makes it all feel distant and ghostly.
And the moments of extreme proximity via punctual and claustrophobic close-ups at the heights of anxiety all feel well-earned and visually captivating.
The next element of brilliance is the score by Johnny Greenwood. His scores have long been of immense interest to me as a diehard Radiohead fan.
Whether it’s the small flairs of jazz and piano or the sharp and deadly strings that complete a small and horrifying orchestra-like sound. When we see Princess Diana spiral into anxiety, it’s the score that really gets under your skin. The strings tearing and lashing out at you.
This brings us to Kristen Stewart. She is transformative in this role. Stewart captures Princess Diana with simplicity and repressed pain. The moments of panic, mania, or depressive outbursts are shocking to see, and it’s all done with such minimal ease. This isn’t the loud screaming shouting performance that I think most would do in a role and character like this; it’s very internal and muted.
This led to me really connecting with her struggles. I felt her loss of freedom, childhood joy, and the pressures of all those wanting her to be someone she’s not.
Each of Princess Diana’s outfits are meticulously crafted and displays layers of her emotional state. And the sound design, yet sparse, is interesting in the way it highlights silences with a faint ambiance. The supporting cast all does well, too.
The only real problem of the picture is the screenplay. The majority of it is brilliant in the way it positions Princess Diana against the family with an intense focus on her perspective and the way it dives deeply into her psyche.
But by the end, something about it feels unsatisfactory. This story fails to have any sort of cathartic emotional payoff. And it may just be how the film was written, edited, and directed on purpose.
It feels much more like a mood piece than a real character study. I believe many will leave this picture with a feeling of emptiness and disappointment as it doesn’t have that strong momentum pushing this narrative forward to a satisfactory conclusion.
So, in ending:
7/10 - Good
Pablo Larrain’s film about Princess Diana is at times jaw-dropping with its immensely emotional score, subdued washed-out bright visual palette, and a performance by Kristen Stewart that is both transformative and emotionally raw. But, the film is difficult to watch, with the daydream/nightmare mood piece feel leaving much to be desired in the narrative. If you are a fan of quiet, slow, aesthetic-focused films, this will be for you. But if you’re looking for a film with an emotional payoff, a satisfactory story, or a deep character study of The Princess, then it disappoints.