Spencer is a fictionalized account of the life of Princess Diana as her marriage to Prince Charles is on the rocks due to his affair with Camilla. That’s about where the accuracy ends as the rest of the movie goes into unexpected camp territory and is pumped up with histrionics.
Kristen Stewart turns in a unique interpretation of Diana, a woman who is so overwhelmed not only by Charles’ infidelity but also by the enormous expectations of dealing with the Christmas holidays in 1991 including spending time with her family and Royal staff.
Jack Farthing stars as Charles and together he and Stewart have some exchanges over a pool table that seem to symbolically depict which direction their marriage will head.
Diana also gets some nice scenes with her two sons, William and Harry (Jack Nielen and Freddy Spry) who help her maintain her level of sanity in the midst of her inevitable chaos. Sally Jenkins costars as her royal dresser who offers further emotional support. Their scenes do offer proper weight and even some revelations.
The rest of the movie is uneven in terms of its tone. One minute it attempts to land itself in biopic territory with a tag line at the beginning reading “a fable from a true tragedy” and next goes into something resembling a campy horror film. Maybe this was the filmmakers’ attempt to examine Diana’s fragile psyche as she attempts to process all the goings-on surrounding her. Just a guess.
Even with its flaws, I still mildly recommend Spencer on the basis of Stewart’s captivating performance. She certainly has Diana’s looks down to a T and again I think she tries to capture the state of mind Diana could’ve been in. My only wish is that the movie provided a better semblance of consistency throughout the story.
Stewart will definitely be a forerunner for Best Actress and I think the Academy should go ahead and engrave her name on that golden statuette.
Spencer might prove to be somewhat of a missed opportunity, but Stewart saves it with her engaging portrayal that, thankfully, proves she can once and for all eradicate the memories of the Twilight series.
Grade: B
(Rated R for some language.)
