{"id":39400,"date":"2021-11-04T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=39400"},"modified":"2021-11-04T12:22:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T12:22:53","slug":"spencer-review-kristen-stewart-princes-diana","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/spencer-review-kristen-stewart-princes-diana\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristen Stewart Fully Commits to a Wild, Messy Fever Dream in \u2018Spencer\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kristen
Kristen Stewart in Spencer<\/i> (Photo: Courtesy of Neon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re told at the outset of Spencer<\/em><\/a> that the film is a \u201cfable\u201d taken from real life. I suppose this is director Pablo Larra\u00edn\u2019s way of letting us know that his film, written by Steven Knight, isn\u2019t based on actual, factual events in the lives of Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart<\/a>) and the British Royal Family<\/a>. But Spencer<\/em> is less a tale with a moral lesson at its heart, than it is a confounding fever dream.<\/p>\n

We meet Diana<\/a> as she is bound for Sandringham House, the Queen\u2019s estate in Norfolk, on Christmas Eve 1991. The Wales\u2019 marriage is on the rocks, and she\u2019s an object of relentless<\/a> media<\/a> scrutiny. Separated from Charles (Jack Farthing) and eager to exert her independence, she\u2019s driving herself and gets lost, despite having grown up nearby at the now shuttered Spencer family seat. This gives her occasion to tell someone, \u201cI\u2019m lost,\u201d which is one of the film\u2019s many themes that are not just literally signposted, but as here, stated aloud. Another hangs over the Sandringham House kitchen, reminding the staff to work quietly so as not to disturb the royals: \u201cThey can hear you!\u201d<\/p>\n

Over her three days at Sandringham, Diana struggles with the rigid protocol. Outfits<\/a> have been pre-approved for every occasion; the atmosphere, both literal and metaphorical, is frigid; holiday traditions, like getting weighed upon both arrival and departure, are mandatory. This last, supposedly fun<\/em> activity\u2014everyone is expected to put on weight to prove that they had a thoroughly jolly Christmas\u2014seems at first like a typically heavy-handed nod to the Princess\u2019s struggles with bulimia. But later, Charles is mercilessly snide about her disordered eating, and the camera\u2019s loving attention to the lavish holiday meals is juxtaposed with scenes of Stewart hunched over a toilet, her ivory gown spread around her. So much for allusion.<\/p>\n

\"Kristen
Kristen Stewart in Spencer<\/i> (Photo: Courtesy of Neon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s the image echoed in the film\u2019s poster<\/a>, and in hindsight it feels a bit like a prank: an image of elegant despair that turns out to be something much\u2026ruder. Spencer<\/em> is far from the graceful biopic<\/a> that many diehard Di fans are probably hoping for. This film is something darker and weirder, and once I understood that\u2014another early clue is its squealing, discordant jazz score\u2014 I found I liked it more. The highly composed dinner scenes feel like something out of a Kubrick film or possibly The Favorite<\/em>, and the Windsors themselves for the most part appear as silent, watchful ghouls\u2014almost cartoonish caricatures<\/a>. Even Diana\u2019s multiheaded shower echoes a madhouse delousing.<\/p>\n

There are also elements of possibly unintentional camp. As the pressure begins to take its toll on the fragile princess, Diana begins to have visions of Anne Boleyn\u2014try to unravel that<\/em> symbolism. Meanwhile, the presence of Farthing and Timothy Spall (as some sort of sinister butler type person) calls to mind their performances in the farcical British series Blandings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Kristen
Kristen Stewart in Spencer<\/i> (Photo: Courtesy of Neon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But as Diana\u2019s paranoia increases, the film gets ever more hallucinatory and we begin to wonder what\u2019s real. Surely not the apparitions of Henry VIII\u2019s second wife, but what about the impossibly supportive lady\u2019s maid Maggie (Sally Hawkins) who disappears for much of the second act and doesn\u2019t seem to have any characteristics beyond concern for Diana\u2019s well-being. Was she ever really there? Larra\u00edn, who directed AppleTV+\u2019s recent adaptation of Stephen King\u2019s Lisey\u2019s Story<\/em><\/a>, doesn\u2019t seem to have quite gotten the horror out of his system yet, and things go fully macabre when the princess breaks into her abandoned childhood home one Christmas night. We\u2019re talking a full-on haunted house nightmare, complete with ghosts of Diana\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

But, on the third day\u2014Boxing Day\u2014she rises again. Buoyed by Maggie, who returns just in the nick of time, Diana finds the strength and peace of mind she needs to yank the film back into a more conventional, inspiring mold. It\u2019s the uplifting dawn after the dark night of the soul; there\u2019s a sing-along to an \u201980s pop song and we\u2019re left shaking our heads at what we\u2019ve just seen.<\/p>\n

Spencer <\/em>is a wild, at times ham-fisted mess of a movie. But with so<\/a> much<\/a> Diana<\/a> content coming our way over the past year or so, you kind of have to admire Larra\u00edn for taking this much of a swing. Spencer <\/em>is less concerned with the historical record or the palace soap opera than it is in giving us a sense of Diana\u2019s presumed state of mind in the pressure cooker context of the Royal Family. And Stewart, bless her, really does commit to her character\u2019s baroque unraveling. Much like Diana herself, if you stop trying to make Spencer<\/em> fit into your glamorous idea of what a Royal, Oscar-bait-y biopic should be, you may just find yourself bizarrely entertained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":39413,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,3324,16],"yoast_head":"\nKristen Stewart Fully Commits to a Wild, Messy Fever Dream in \u2018Spencer\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We\u2019re told at the outset of Spencer that the film is a \u201cfable\u201d taken from real life. 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