Princess Diana has been an individual of interest for decades, beginning in the 80s through her marriage to Prince Charles and continuing after her death in the late 90s. Although she is an icon, little is known about her private life away from the cameras. Director Pablo Larrain and screenwriter Steven Knight have made a remarkable film about Princess Diana’s Christmas holiday in 1991 at the royal family’s country estate, creating an honest portrayal of what may have happened during these three days in Diana’s life.
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Kristen Stewart’s performance as Princess Diana is beyond extraordinary. Her commitment to the role and the love behind the performance is easily seen on screen. What may come as a surprise is the physical nature of the role that Kristen Stewart nails. Her facial expressions and mannerisms that display the weight that Diana had on her shoulders regarding her marriage with Charles, her struggle with anxiety and depression, and having to create a false personality “for the good of the county,” is greatly felt by the audience.
The film handles the subject material in a way all biopics should, through the examination of a narrow period of time that digs deep into the character at hand and its subject matter. The mood of the film allows the audience to realize the immense pressure and numbness Diana felt being part of the royal family. Not to mention while also having to be a mother to her boys Harry and William and raise them with her ideals in a world where she was not accepted for being different. Having covered only three days and feeling the way we do watching Spencer, it can not even be imagined the true life of Princess Diana living in royalty for close to two decades.
Spencer is an anxiety-inducing film depicting the horrors of royalty behind closed doors. As much as Larrain and Knight try to get the audience to sympathize with a woman and a mother doing all that she can in such a terrible circumstance, it is obvious through the production design, costume design, and the hair and makeup, that as much as we wish to empathize with Diana, it can never be truly understood by anyone what her life must have been like.
The degree of loneliness that she must have felt, which can not be quantified by anyone outside of royalty, is incredibly portrayed through the teamwork of Larrain’s direction and Knight’s writing. Spencer will be making waves this award season and Stewart deserves to be recognized for such an extraordinary achievement.
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