'Spencer' Movie Review: Distressing slice-of-life portrait

Spencer

Spencer
Dir: Pablo Larrain
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Sean Harris, and Sally Hawkins
Rating: 3.5/5

Director Pablo Larrain attempts to piece together the fraying embers of a once fairy tale marriage between Prince Charles, heir to the throne of England and his wife Diana, who lived an altogether different and rather ordinary life in comparison, before she entered the private, regimented, gilded personal Kingdom of the Queen. The entire narrative is constructed around the Christmas holidays in the Royal Household at Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England and is brought to us from the perceived idea of an anguished, traumatised Princess Diana who apparently, as per popular lore, made her decision to end her marriage during that time.

Larrain and scriptwriter Steven Knight makes it clear right from the outset that this is a ‘Fable based on a true tragedy' so even if offended, the Royal Family would have to grin and bear with it. As an audience we become voyeurs to the dismantling of the ‘perfect' Princess as she struggles with the knowledge that her fairy tale romance was a sham after learning about her Prince Charming's infidelity - a liaison that predates her marriage.

Kristen Stewart's stunning makeover (both internal and external) as the heartbroken Princess is so uncanny that it's difficult to separate the actress from the Princess and contributes heavily to the conviction that this entire episode of a couple of weeks could well be true. The Princess grapples with severe insecurity, mental health issues, Bulimia in particular and even begins to believe that her fate would parallel that of Ann Boleyn who was beheaded because she was the inconvenient wife to a King, Henry the VIII, who wanted to marry his mistress.

It's an agonising series of incidents that highlight the Princess' state of mind. Larraín doesn't bother to tip-toe around the harsh reality of what must have been. Her face-offs with a stern-faced former military officer (Timothy Spall), her reunion with her sons William (Jack Nielen) and Harry (Freddie Spry), her public reckoning of husband Prince Charles' (Jack Farthing) affair, her anxiety, depression and visions of the ghost of Anne Boleyn (Amy Manson), her forced separation from an ally, Maggie (Sally Hawkins), from among her staff, paint a harrowing picture of life in a gilded cage. Larrain's vision encapsulates dream sequences, emotional and physical pain, punctuated by metaphoric dialogue and accompanied by stunning character defining camerawork by Cinematographer Claire Mathon and a background score from composer Jonny Greenwood that aids in bringing that tumultuous period in her life, alive.

Even though it's an all too brief period that's highlighted by Stewart's career defining vivid portrayal of melancholia and doom, we get the bigger picture that Diana's life was never the bed of roses that we all once imagined it to be. Guy Hendrix Dyas and Yesim Zolan's painstakingly immaculate production design, close-to-the-real outfits designed by Jacqueline Durran and of course, the terrific makeup team responsible for transforming Stewart into Princess Diana also have a huge role to play in making this a realistic portrait of a Royal life disintegrating before our eyes. This is indeed a tough watch but it's also an eye-opener to the Royal life which we erroneously perceive as rich and beautiful.