Spencer

Centering on a more romanticized but accurate chapter in the detached marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, Pablo Larrain’s Spencer is an exquisitely crafted, superbly acted biographical drama about the emotional anxiety and distress Princess Diana theoretically endured during the Christmas festivities arranged by the Royal Family’s Sandringham Estate in December of 1991. The film features a superlative performance by Kirsten Stewart who along with Larrain’s visual artistry elevate the experience way above the typical “Oscar bait” production. Though not always dramatically consistent as not every characters  scene ignites on a dramatic level as it should, the film should be embraced for its experimental visual style and how effectively psychological the experience is. Larrian echoing some methods of his icon of Luis Bunuel merges the dreams (or nightmares) with reality while also critiquing hierarchy and bourgeoise lifestyles.  Larrain’s style also taps deep into the psyche of Princess Diana and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steven Knight (Eastern Promises, Dirty Pretty Things) examines the trauma of a woman’s repression and the effects of being trapped in a lifestyle that isn’t too fulfilling.

Distributor Neon should anticipate high acclaim and appreciation from high minded audiences, who are likely to be impressed by the impeccably crafted, emotionally raw and superbly made film. Spencer is part psychological drama, part biopic–and above all it’s a complex, elegant chronicle of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown from tabloid frenzy and living a life of captivity. Both Larrain and Knight deserve great praise for their aims at humanizing a historical figure by illuminating her personal struggles, or offscreen persona as it probably was. The appeal to this film is how well audiences will accept some of the film’s surrealism and more internal style that takes a more harrowing and unnerving approach at examining the curiosities of celebrities’ lifestyles that’s hidden from the public spotlight.

While  partially romanticized, the film still feels accurate and vivid just as Gus Van Sant’s 2005 Last Days did, which  was about Kurt Cobain. Chronicling an actual event with psychosis, Larraine examines 72 hours of Diana, Princess of Wales, trying to build up her courage to finally separate herself from Prince Charles. Played with extraordinary emotion and dignity by Kristen Stewart, who embodies the historical icon so affectingly where she transports herself  in the role–resulting in a highly commanding and convincing role that is the highlight of Stewart’s career and one of the greatest performances of the year. Stewart has now positioned herself to front-runner status to possibly take home the Academy Award for Best Actress. This will all depending on how the rest of her competition fares with the upcoming release of House of Gucci, Licorice Pizza, and Parallel Mothers that also feature female leads that are generating much buzz and anticipation at the moment. Stewart has proved over and over again she is a skillful actress–see her in Olivia’s Assaya’s masterworks Clouds of Sils Maria (2015) and Personal Shopper (2017).

The story begins in 1991, six years years before Princess Diana tragically died in an automobile accident in Paris, France in 1997–an whose maiden name is Spencer. She was a global celebrity, and very compassionate woman who was constantly harassed by tabloids. To this day, she is still praised and cherished for her advocacy and compassion for AIDS patients and the homeless. As title cards appear  “A fable from a true tragedy,” the film sets up the tone of the film that what we are seeing is a fictionalized version of a factual event. Yarn begins as Princess Diana (Stewart) is late to the beginning of the holiday festivities that are set to take place during the course of three days. During this journey, Larrain examines Diana’s plunge into deep and dizzying depression, which results from  Larrain attempting to make two films here–in a literal sense one side of the film captures Diane’s external world that include interactions and exchanges with her family and loved ones–and the surrealist side that captures her internal trauma that has been plagued by repression, unhappiness, depression, and tabloid frenzy.

During the surrealist scenes Larrain captures Princess Diana’s anxieties and fear within her subconsciousness, his approaches that are stylistically similar to the same motifs and atmosphere of Luis Bunuel as I mentioned above. There is a very disturbing hallucination in the film where Diana is eating her soup only for her pearl necklace to fall off her neck and into the soup as she ends up digesting the pearls as she swallows them with the soup. It’s a nightmarish moment that feels right out of a horror movie–most specifically Swallow (2020)–and it’s conveyed with such nail-biting anxiety by Stewart who brings so much affliction to the role. We’re relieved once it’s revealed that it’s just a fragmented thought within Diana’s inner psyche. To further immerse Diana’s psychology, composer Jonny Greenwood (There Will Be Blood, The Master, Phantom Thread) once again creates a haunting score with his singular style that consists of high-pitch strings and crescendos that amplify Diana’s downward spiral into madness and the macabre.

During the more literal scenes,  Larrain explores how Princess Diana’s freedom and privacy is stripped away by the Royal Family while she arrives at the mansion. In the opening of the saga, she is greeted by Equerry Major Alistair Gregory (Timothy Spall), the head-of-security of the Royal Family, in which Diana must always check-in to him what he’s doing. Even if it means sneaking out to get a late night snack. In between being surveyed, she is reunited with her two sons William (Jack Nielen) and Harry (Freddie Spry), on the outside Diana attempts to put on the loving wife and mother persona, but deep inside she is hurt from knowing her husband Prince Charles (Jake Farthing) is seeing another woman. One expertly staged scene examines Diana and Charles tension and disconnection as they hold an exchange at a pool table where they are both framed in symmetrical medium shots as Larrain pushes in and out during their dialogue, Larrain uses a lot of space in this particular scene that echoes the work of Kubrick and even P.T. Anderson that showcases the empty heights that their marriage now faces. It’s a very bitter but deeply compelling scene that is also greatly scripted and performed by Farthing and Stewart.

From there Lorrain and French cinematographer Claire Mathon (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Atlantics) with ravishingly natural and diffused lighting exquisitely use a lot of tracking shots to show Diana moving in and out of the mansion, through rooms, as she is attempting to regain her sanity and isolate herself from a world she feels alienated from. Lorrain captures her depression as her mind state begins to falter, but she does find reassurance with an autobiographical book she finds on her bed about Queen Anne Boleyn, the wife of King Henry the VIII who was beheaded so he could have a marriage with her own mistress.  Diana eventually ends up seeing visions of Anne Boleyn (Amy Manson),that could either be a ghost or a reflection of her own subconscious–regardless it adds a further supernatural and surrealist element to the film that is going to require revisits to fully gauge the dense but equally fascinating material.  We also get very moving exchanges between Diana and Maggie (Sally Hawkins), her dresser where Stewart and Hawkins ignite their scenes with compassion and empathy towards each other. A key moment involves them going to a gorgeous beach where Maggie and Diana find their own personal freedom during those small moments away from the Royal Family.

Just as I pointed out in my review of Ema, Larrain is drawn into women who are living in suffocating lifestyles during the aftermath of deep anxiety. In 2016 he helmed the greatly acted and equally artful Jackie which was about First Lady Jackie Kennedy and her grieving stages hours and days upon the assassination. An Ema, the film was about a street dancer who is attempting to reinvent herself from her controlling husband, and Spencer plays like a trilogy to the latter–and most notably more like a companion piece to Jackie because they are both about historical women living in dismay in their privileged lifestyle. Both women have to put on a public front that they are strong as they have it all, but inside they are very vulnerable and confined to a lifestyle that doesn’t appear to have an exit.

Lorrain and Knight explore how Diana wanted to liberate herself. Dating back to his earlier Chilean films like NO and Neruda examine how the Chilean dictatorship controls the thoughts and ideas of its citizens. We also see the power of the crown of Queen Elizabeth holding over Diana in the exact same way Pinochet did over Chilean society in NO. In other words, Diana is also oppressed under authoritarian rule where she years for her own personal freedom. This is made apparent during a key scene where the Royal Family is watching Queen Elizabeth (Stella Gonet) deliver a speech on the values of a free society where Diana can see through the hypocrisy.

Larrain does handle his ideas far more accessible than he did with Jackie and Ema, while still employing some heavy-handed motifs involving a bird and a montage of Diana in different designer clothes that showcase her youth. She’s even able to fit back into a dress she wore in her 20s. This particular moment occurs before she is denied to go back to her home, but she ends up going in a very surreal scene that showcases the nightmare of her lost childhood. Despite the obtrusiveness of the visuals, Larrain employs an unobtrusive style that brings a lot of layers to the drama and allows his gifted sensibilities to develop some rich characterizations that merge the abstract with the personal.

Mostly known working in the mediocre but commercially successful Twilight movies, Stewart brings her superb declamation to a very challenging and fragile role of a shattered but strong woman. As written and performed, Stewart delivers a performance that isn’t as fidgety as some of her others. One of her best roles was her supporting performance in Clouds of Sils Maria which was hands down the most impressive supporting performance of 2015. While hit-or-miss with her British accent in Spencer, Stewart’s portrayal and emotional vulnerabilities is where it makes up for something that could have easily just been another larger-than-life stylized, Oscar bait performance. Stewart is able to deviate from her own self as her performance is completely transformative and equally meditative.

As a character, Stewart may not feel as heroic as some of the other characters in other films or mini-series that is based on the Royal Family like The Crown or Stephen Frears The Queen (2006), that both chronicle the Royal Family that are highly praised, but Stewart brings enough empathy and vulnerability to the role that showcases Diana’s personal dilemmas and emotional pressures. Though lavish and exquisite with locales, rich decors, luminous cinematography, eloquent wardrobe, and high production values, luckily the dizzying and equally flashy visual style doesn’t suffocate the material as Larrain and Stewart guide the film into a more absorbing and involving experience.