Spencer ⭐⭐½

Fans of The Crown or Pablo Larrain’s own Jackie will be confused and/or disappointed by his very art-house take on the Princess of Wales which stuff a bunch of broad-stroke concepts about Diana Spencer into one fictionalized Christmas at Sandringham just before she makes the decision to walk away from her marriage and the Royal Family. It’s a commendable strategy, to sidetrack the inevitable comparisons with the popular Netflix show, by concentrating on Diana’s interactions with her children and the staff, specifically, Timothy Spall’s fictitious and antagonistic Major who runs the estate, and Sean Harris’ understanding chef and Sally Hawkins’ sympathetic dresser, which are actually based on real people. While the film is tastefully shot and the production design does a grand job visualizing her isolation inside the intimidating palatial estate that resembles a grey bejewelled prison, it’s weighed down by an overwrought screenplay that’s overpacked with symbolism, analogies and metaphors which are then over-explained, over-Anne Boleyn-ed and sometimes simply groan-inducingly on-the-nose. Screenwriter Steven Knight’s fabulized Diana turns her into a tardy, ditzy, maybe even petulant woman who’s acting crazily as a result of her eating disorder (though the Royal Family are equally unsympathetically portrayed here); while Kristen Stewart’s performance as Diana remains exactly that, and try as she might to avoid mimicry and caricatures for something more internal to demonstrate her pain and helplessness, I never got over the fact that she’s playing Diana, instead of being Diana. Unhelpfully and perhaps counter-productively, Jonny Greenwood’s disorientating jazzy score only brings to mind Claire Dane’s bipolar character in Homeland. With nothing particularly insightful or fresh to add, I’m tempted to call this a fanciful regurgitation except I’m worried that might sound a bit in poor taste, so I’ll just say I find this rather shallow, misjudged and OTT instead.