“Spencer” - Film Review
It’s crazy to think that Kristen Stewart is the only American actress to ever receive a César Award, and yet when I say her name, most people will only remember her in Twilight. Unless you’re a cultured human being and you think of that one time she went to Hooters in Texas and we got this incredible photo:
hang this in the louvre
But we are not gathered here today to talk about the nuances of that spectacular photo. (Although, I would be remiss if I didn’t spend just a moment on Stewart’s goofy grin, the big, beautiful Texas sky behind her, and the abundance of sunburns. A true masterpiece.) We are here to talk about the movie that should absolutely get her a long-deserved (yes, I said LONG-deserved) Oscar nomination, the Princess Diana fable, Spencer.
It’s important to note going in that this is not the traditional, heavily-researched, Oscar-bait biopic I’ve come to dread. Although all of the trappings for that are here — the meticulously recreated costumes, a glossy actor in the lead role, a widely recognized director (Pablo Larraín), and intriguing subject matter. With all of that, it’s nothing like a plodding, paint-by-numbers biopic. It’s a horror story through and through.
Spencer takes place over three days, from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day in 1991, and follows the emotions that lead Diana (Kristen Stewart) to decide to divorce Prince Charles (Jack Farthing). It starts with the text “a fable based on a true story” because there’s no way a true account of this weekend could exist. But it’s also a fable, because there are ghosts, haunted houses, moments of pure terror, and lessons learned.
Truly, few things could be more terrifying than living in Diana’s shoes that weekend. She is well aware that her husband’s entire family can’t stand her and want nothing to do with her. She is also very aware that Charles much prefers the company of another woman (Camilla Parker Bowles, played by Emma Darwall-Smith). Even so, the two of them are forced to keep up appearances for the good of an entire country. (How that’s for “the good of the country” I will never understand.)
In a movie that’s all about Diana’s decision to divorce Charles, it might seem surprising that Charles has only ten minutes of screentime, and shows up about an hour into the film. However, the audience understands everything about the royal couple’s relationship through the gift of the pearl necklace. It’s the same gift Charles gave to her. Camilla’s name is never mentioned, she appears in only one scene, and never says a single line, but her presence is looming. Those pearls, that constricting necklace, become like a noose to Diana.
(There’s a dream moment where Stewart yanks off the pearl necklace in question and the pearls clatter into her bowl of soup. She then hungrily scoops the soup-covered pearls into her mouth and crunches down on them. The woman next to me gasped and said “oh, I can’t watch.” Interestingly, that same woman was very interested in the movie, Benedetta, which is about lesbian nuns and is apparently off the wall. I had half a mind to ask if we could see Benedetta together, because if this woman couldn’t handle a little pearl crunching, I would love the chance to see how she reacts to the nun nipple movie.)
(Neon, Topic Studios)
Spencer is a horror movie with a twist. This film has the audience root for all of the aspects of horror movies they’re usually yelling at the characters to ignore. Diana is desperate to leave the well-lit, guarded, populated house at Sandringham and go to her childhood home nearby. That house is wrapped in barbed wire, the floors have caved in, and the grounds are completely deserted, yet it feels like home for Diana. It’s the place and the feeling she’s aching to find again. Despite what it looks like, that is a safe place to her.
Sandringham isn’t safe for Diana. The walls have eyes and ears that aren’t kind to her. Curtains in her room are sewed shut so she can’t let the sunlight in. The estate is massive and sprawling, maze-like, and so, so cold, despite her yearly requests for at least her room to be warmed. Within these walls, she’s constantly watched over, prodded, dressed — a doll. Ghosts are usually to be avoided or exorcised, but the ghost of Anne Boleyn is one of Diana’s only true confidants in the house. Her other, a dresser named Maggie (a delightful Sally Hawkins), is sent away for being too sympathetic to Diana. Her children can only support her so much. They’re young and can’t conceive of the weight of being a royal.
This magnificent, regal estate is a prison for Diana. The things we’re taught to be afraid of — ghosts, abandoned houses, being alone at night — are the things that give Diana peace and save her life. The estate is haunted by people who want to erase Diana’s personality and sense of self until she is only the Princess of Wales. The people who harm her are flesh and blood. They linger outside closed doors, always knocking, always wondering where she is and what she’s doing. Diana has a part to play and they’re going to do everything in their power to force her to play it.
(Neon, Topic Studios)
The movie begins with Diana showing up late for the Christmas weekend. She has driven herself to Sandringham, something that is distinctly against the rules. She also gets lost and tries to get directions from a roadside fish and chips shop, but is met with blank stares. The shopkeepers can’t accept that she’s a real person. The Princess of Wales is a media-made image that Diana herself doesn’t even recognize. No one helps her find her way. Later, Charles tells her that she must learn to be two people, the one the cameras see and the one she actually is. Instead, she ends up being no one.
There’s so much power in a name and an identity, in choosing the clothes you wear, when you wear them, why you wear them. Diana has lost all of these things for the sake of the Crown, yet they are all things she realizes she can’t live without. As much as this movie is about Diana’s decision to divorce Charles, it is about Diana’s decision to take back the things that are hers. The Spencer name, the tattered jacket from her past life, and, most importantly, her future. It is magnificent and joyous despite the fact that we know what’s coming. For a moment, when we see Diana standing by the Thames with William and Harry, eating KFC together, we can pretend that there’s a different ending on the horizon.
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