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Spencer (2021) Review: "The past and the present are the same thing"


{Non-spoiler Review}



Every little girl has dreamt of unlimited dresses, dining with royalty, and a spacious bedroom fit for a queen. However in Spencer, these are all part of Princess Diana’s tortured existence. Director Pablo Larraín brings a take on another culturally prominent woman whose powerful spouse was unfaithful to her after his critical success with Jackie (2016). He sets the tone in an eerie fashion with an unnerving score and a color pallet that makes the viewer as clouded as Diana’s head. The story takes the princess from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, each day passing coming to a boiling point as she deals with being the odd one out in the Royal Family as rumors of her husband’s infidelity spread across the media.



This movie would fall apart completely if it were not for the tremendous performance by Kristen Stewart in the lead role. From the start of the movie, one may see Diana as a complainer. It is just three days after all, suck it up! It is not until the scene at the pool table (where we see our first full interaction between Diana and the cheating Prince Charles halfway though the movies run time) that we realize that this poor woman is just trying to be the first one to break the repressive formal order that the Royal Family has been stuck in. Stewart does not let the viewer entirely inside her mind. She just opens it up far enough for you to understand, but still be unknowing of her next move. Her interaction with her kids seems like the only positive in her life, and how she is totally herself around them unwavering from her cause speaks volumes.



What makes Spencer so different from other historical pictures is the uneasiness captured by every scene. The atmosphere around Diana feels claustrophobic all the time. Each of the main adult characters bring a duality to their performance. The Queen, although she is the head of the madness, gives a calming presence with her elderly walk and plethora of corgis. The head butler tries to be a voice of reason but has a not so hidden agenda. The lead chef treats his underlings as if they were in the British Army even if he is the only one who tries to understand Diana. The music accompanying the scenes makes it feel like a horror movie, even when it is certainly not scary in the common sense of the word. There is a segment where Diana returns to her old home, without revealing any more, where the combination of Stewart’s performance coupled with the ambience set in stone by Larraín is at first unsettling and then confidently liberating.


It is a shame to not see Spencer nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, or Best Adapted Screenplay, but Stewart’s performance hopefully will bring home this films only Oscar. Spencer is a uniquely captured moment in time, with insight that the majority of us could never feel. The stress that is conveyed through the screen is moving, always brought to the front by the eyes of a girl whose dream is slowly closing around her. While it is not a broadly appealing movie and is certainly stalling especially towards the beginning Spencer makes up for it with a strong lead in a stagnant wonderland.


★★★☆

76/100

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