Spencer
I walked out of Spencer at the forty five minute mark the first time seeing it at the theater. Re-watching it straight through on Amazon Video, I was hoping my initial reaction was wrong. Unfortunately that decision was justified. This film is a pretentious arthouse movie. It is one of the slowest and most boring films I have had to sit through this year.
Spencer follows Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) at the end of her marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing), during Christmas when she had to spend the holiday with the Royal Family for the last time.
The film specifically covers Diana struggling with:
- the rigidity of the Royal Family's traditions
- Charles' affair and how to find herself again at the end of the marriage, along with the relationship and responsibilities to the Royal Family ending
- the Royal Family judging her for the mental health issues she is suffering through and the constant paranoia and isolation within that
- the loss of privacy regarding the paparazzi & the expectations to perform which cause the staff to keep an eye on Diana to make sure she is acting accordingly
The themes are powerful and important because so many people have also experienced similar difficulties with mental health, familial expectations, divorce, and having to fight to find yourself again and trusting in what those needs are regardless of what is expected. Despite connecting with the themes, I didn't believe Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana. Her performance didn't feel organic enough. There was this undercurrent of forced mimicry. Kristen is brave for taking on this role because a lot of actresses would have most likely turned it down due to how demanding a role like this is. Even though I didn't like her in this, this risk she took makes me want to see what she does next and the growth from this experience to the next project.
Tonally the film is supposed to feel stiff, suffocating, and cold. The cinematography, costume and production design all deliver sustaining this mood throughout. However, we start the movie in 1991, so there is a ten plus years relationship Diana has with Charles, his family, the paparazzi, and this powder keg of tension between everyone at this point when we open the film. Through contained dialogue with a handful of supporting cast Diana's backstory and struggles are understood. Yet, emotionally feeling that tension was hollow and painful to sit through because we never feel it. Also in these scenes I didn't care about any of the characters. No one really says anything throughout the movie. Instead of pondering the themes or Diana's life after the movie I kept thinking I wish this would have been a series of paintings instead.
Spencer is now available on Amazon Video.