'Spencer' film review: Kristen Stewart makes her claim for Best Actress
Kristen Stewart stuns as the iconic Princess of Wales chafing against the domineering life of British royalty in the impressionistic psychodrama 'Spencer' (opening in theaters nationwide Nov. 5).
In short: In the winter of 1991, Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) spends Christmas with the Royal Family. Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing, Sean Harris and Sally Hawkins also star.
On paper, the film's opening almost seems unassuming: a young woman gets lost in the British countryside and is running late for a family gather. This could be the setup for any innocuous rom-com. But the girl is Princess Diana of Wales and arrive "late" to the Queen's Norfolk estate ... is just not acceptable and it's certainly not tradition.
Director Pablo Larraín’s (‘Jackie’) latest film finds a young mother and disaffected wife emotionally oppressed by stifling tradition and public scrutiny. 'Spencer,' threadbare on plot, takes place over several days of innocuous Royal Family holiday festivities. With little to grasp onto in way of plot points, at the outset of the film Diana steels herself for the holiday visit scheduled to last three days - the film opens on Christmas Eve and concludes on Boxing Day.
'Spencer' is an internalized drama that steeps the audience in Diana's claustrophobic life - a woman struggling to regain her autonomy against a system that literally schedules all her wardrobe changes throughout the holiday events. Despite the estate's expansive halls and tall ceilings, the camera is always centered on Stewart's intense performance, imbuing the film with an oppressive tone. At times, it does feel like the walls are closing in on Diana ... and she is just meant to accept her fate as any good royal would. Jonny Greenwood's score infuses the opening with a taut and somewhat sinister undercurrent. Even the film's title reveals that the only bit of Diana's individuality she still has is her maiden name.
Everything about this finely crafted film will be praised, but none deserves more acclaim than Kristen Stewart's knock-out turn as the iconic Princess of Wales. The performance is firmly grounded, depicting Diana as an everywoman bristling as the confined and regimented life of the British royals. Early in the film Diana she stops at a gas station to ask directions - something any normal person would do. In this moment she's just a lost driver asking for directions, but everyone is mouth agape, with some muddled combination of disbelief and incredulity that the Princess of Wales would grace this mundane gas station with her presence. This grounded approach to Diana quickly endears her to the audience, making it easier to sympathize with her narrowly defined life as a member of the Royal family. As with all biopics, it's prudent not to mistake film as fact - and there's nothing that indicates this film is based on actual, specific events during the Christmas of 1991. This frees Stewart from doing some broad impersonation of Diana Spencer and allows her to play a character who has seemingly lost control over her own life and quietly struggles to reclaim sovereignty over her own identity. Stewart embodies a restrained but seething rebellion against the Royal Family.
A consequence of 'Spencer' being so laser-focused on Diana's existence within the Royal Family is that she is really the only character of any depth. This film spends all its empathy and character development on Diana and Diana alone. And because this is a character portrait of a woman drowning in all the trappings of her encumbered life, 'Spencer' benefits from this focused script - but it does come at the cost of every other character in the film. Virtually everyone else is background dressing - with the royal chef and royal house minder getting more dialogue than virtually anyone else in the film. But this is rare instance where such focus actually works for 'Spencer,' but anyone looking for some decadent drama between Diana and the Royal Family should know all that intense drama is in all the film's subtext.
Final verdict: 'Spencer' compels precisely because of its focus on the feeling of losing identity and the impulse to reassert one's own will over their life when they seemingly have control over very little in their life. Stewart's gripping performance is agonizingly accessible and a heartbreaking antithesis of "happily ever after."
Score: 4/5
'Spencer' opens in theaters Nov. 5. This drama has a runtime of 111 minutes is rated R for some language.
