Spencer
Princess Diana deserved better. I’m not strictly speaking about Pablo Larrain’s drama, but in her life. She had a good heart, and her tragic death robbed us of seeing her raise William and Harry. Knowing how much she loved her children doesn’t make it too surprising that “Spencer’s” best moments involve Diana and her kids- when considering how to make a film about her, it’s the one part of her life that feels the easiest to speculate about.
“Spencer” was Diana’s maiden name, and it makes sense that Larrain and screenwriter Steven Knight chose that as the title for this film. Set around a Christmas holiday with the Royal family in 1991, the film has Diana as an outsider, wanting to be free of the prison she sees herself in with her loveless marriage to Prince Charles. She is first seen driving, on her own, out to the house where they will be spending the holidays. She cannot seem to find her way. She then stops at a field, where a scarecrow is perched. It’s one that Diana and her father put up when she was a kid; her family home is not far away, but it’s been long boarded up. How did she forget her way around her childhood home?
Unlike his previous biographical drama, “Jackie,” “Spencer” seems drawn less as a true biopic and more as a fictitious psychological drama about a woman in crisis wrapped around real-life events. That is a problematic idea- one critic in my screening called it “grotesque,” but also said that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing- and it’s one of the things I’ve wrestled with in the hours after watching the film. Is this the type of film about Diana that should be made in her lifetime? That’s debatable, but since it exists, the question is whether it’s respectful, and whether it’s insightful. In a lot of ways, I think it succeeds in being both.
Kristen Stewart plays Diana with the sense of unease about her life and uncertainty about herself that drives the film. For a lot of the film, she seems as though she’s playing a projection of what Knight and Larrain imagine Diana being during these three days. In real life, this was a moment before Diana decided her marriage to Charles needs to end, and we feel the anxiety about her being a part of the structure, and tradition, of being a part of the Royal Family. Did Diana have Imposter Syndrome? Part of the dilemma she faces in the film is how she was a commoner, and the sense of stature that comes with being royalty, and from what we know of her, that makes sense. How Larrain tells this narrative, though, it feels as though we’re on the outside looking in of Diana’s emotional struggle. It makes it difficult to gauge the effectiveness of Stewart’s performance, although she does an excellent job of affecting the tics and mannerisms of the Princess of Wales. Where the film finds her heart, however, is in the scenes between Diana and William and Harry. There are two big moments between the three that are emotionally powerful, and get to our memories of the mother that Diana was. Even when she feels as though she’s losing herself, her children are her north star. In those scenes alone, “Spencer” finds its reason for existing.
Larrain’s craft is startling and impactful. Claire Mathon’s cinematography uses wide shots to further illustrate the oppressive nature of this life on Diana, and the score by Jonny Greenwood has moments of haunting power, something we should be used to by now. There are also interesting supporting performance by Timothy Spall as the family’s “head of security,” who has some unnerving scenes with Diana, and Sean Harris as the head chef, who has affection for the Princess. The supporting performance that stands out the most is Sally Hawkins, as a housemaid who has a special connection to Diana, and is part of her awakening to get out of this world she feels trapped in. “Spencer” is about one of the most beloved women in the world, breaking out of the life that, as it went on, felt like a prison to her. The film’s conclusion gives us a happier end to her story than she had in real life, making it all the sadder what was lost.
