I remember being on a Labor Day Vacation in the United States visiting cousins, when news broke of Princess Diana’s death. That night, every female family member on that trip didn’t go out to eat, opting to watch news coverage of her life instead. Such was the Power of the Princess of Wales, a force of female empowerment and empathy towards the vulnerable martyred by a society not ready for her. Spencer is about one of the most trying times in her life: the 1991 Christmas Season with the Royal Family. Some of you might be like: that doesn’t sound bad?
Well, when you’re Princess Di (Kristen Stewart), 3 day stays at a remote castle certainly amounts to close to a death sentence. Though she will be with her kids William (Jack Nielen) and Harry (Freddie Spry) and her trusted dresser Maggie (Sally Hawkins), she’ll also be around the rest of the royal family, including her husband Charles (Jack Farthing) whom she knows is having an affair. Diana also knows the family doesn’t trust her emotional state either, with new Equerry Major Alistair Gregory (Timothy Spall) watching her every move to make sure she follows the rules.
Pablo Larrain, the director, has handled stories like Diana’s before: he directed Jackie a few years ago about the widow of JFK. With Spencer, he takes his lessons from that earlier film and gives the movie its best and worst trait: a cold, foreboding, oppressive atmosphere. All the symmetry, formality, and opulence the Royal family has different meanings for Diana. That Balmoral Castle symmetry means military like regimentation, keeping all at arms length under the guise of security, and keeping Diana in the dark for what those security issues are because she’s the equivalent of a Private here; I would like to see Larrain do the Wes Anderson horror movie SNL showed a trailer for a few years ago with his Anderson like blocking. Formality to Diana means rules, which writer Steven Knight and Larrain show the subtle, constant fight between Diana and those rules. Diana leaves the windows open when she undresses; Gregory staples the drapes shut. Then she wears an outfit out of order, so Maggie gets “summoned away” last minute. It’s never outwardly cruel, but it puts a more impenetrable cage around the free bird Princess Di. And all that jewelry and riches means vanity to Diana, which means she’s perpetually judged on her weight, and forced to wear jewelry that snaps into place like ankle bracelets on a prisoner. That constant oppression gets pretty repetitive after a while, and will definitely make the audience uncomfortable and a little bored, but it goes a long way to undoing all the negative press Diana was faced with by the royal family about her “emotional state” and how she was “unstable” when clearly she wanted to be treated like a human and not a prisoner.
The other choice Larrain makes it letting Kristen Stewart go for her Oscar. The talented actress has long broken out of her Twilight type casting, choosing really interesting roles for herself for a while now. This performance is built for the Oscars “For Your Consideration” reel, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad, quite the opposite. Stewart really makes you feel Diana’s longing for agency and freedom, adding to whatever the screenplay gives her, including selling a couple really daring waking nightmare sequences. You actually can see pieces of her Bella Twilight character in Diana; the two share an uncomfortability in their own skin, but also carry a warmth and strength within that others sense, but Stewart’s Diana performance shows the actress’s growth over the last decade. Helping scare Stewart without actually doing anything is Timothy Spall, who’s been great at this type of role forever, but carries himself here with imbued power that threatens constantly but never directly.
Spencer shows what pressure/shackles were around Diana Spencer for the longest time. It posits that after this three day prison sentence, she found a way to come out the otherside, her boys, KFC, a convertible, and Mike & the Mechanics blasting on the radio. A strange choice for a song, but long overdue in my opinion, not enough people know that Mike & the Mechanics made 3 certified hits that will lift anyone’s spirits, even the Princess of Wales.