{"id":9707,"date":"2024-12-01T09:59:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T14:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9707"},"modified":"2024-12-01T09:59:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T14:59:39","slug":"spencer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/01\/spencer\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Spencer<\/strong> (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 117 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Pablo Larrain\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Steven Knight\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Johnny Greenwood\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Claire Mathon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 5, 2021 (US & UK)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing, Sean Harris, Sally Hawkins, Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry, Stella Gonet, Richard Sammel, Elizabeth Berrington, Lore Stefanek, Amy Manson, John Keogh, James Harkness, Laura Benson, Wendy Patterson, Libby Rodliffe.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $7M (US)\/$25.2M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Anybody looking for a traditional biopic about the late Princess of Wales is advised to look elsewhere. The drama Spencer<\/strong> is anything but traditional. I\u2019m not even sure it qualifies as a biopic. Sure, it gives us glimpses of Princess Diana\u2019s life, but it\u2019s not about that. It\u2019s more about her state of mind as she spends Christmas with the royal family one last time before she separates from Prince Charles. It\u2019s a very stressful time as you can imagine. She struggles to keep it together, but everyone can see she\u2019s going off the rails. It\u2019s fine with them as long as it\u2019s not in public.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s been a lot of buzz surrounding Kristen Stewart\u2019s performance as Diana Spencer, most of it quite good. There\u2019s even talk of an Oscar nomination. I was dubious about this curious bit of casting when I saw the trailer a few months back. I wasn\u2019t sure Stewart could pull it off. I couldn\u2019t picture her in the role. There\u2019s no resemblance between the two women. I also wondered why they didn\u2019t go with an actress who\u2019s actually British. Can Stewart do a believable accent? I had strong doubts. I predicted failure for Spencer<\/strong>. Thankfully, I was wrong. The Twilight actress delivers a fine performance even if her accent is shaky.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What makes Spencer <\/strong>different from the usual biopic? By way of an answer, allow me to direct you to another film by director Pablo Larrain, the 2016 drama Jackie. That\u2019s the one starring Natalie Portman as widowed First Lady Jackie Kennedy. It takes place in the days immediately following the assassination of her husband on November 22, 1963. Its primary focus is her state of mind as she navigates personal tragedy in the public eye. Spencer<\/strong> is similar. It takes us inside Diana\u2019s mind as she tries not to crack up for the sake of her in-laws\u2019 public image. It wouldn\u2019t look good. Bad optics, as they say today. She puts on a happy face, mostly for her two young sons William (Nielen) and Harry (Spry), but it does nothing for her deteriorating mental state. She starts having visions of the ghost of Anne Boleyn (Manson, The Nevers), the wife Henry VIII had beheaded because the Church didn\u2019t allow divorce. Diana, whose own marriage is collapsing, sees it as an omen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Set at Christmas 1991, the first sign of Diana\u2019s troubled state of mind is her getting lost while driving herself to the royal family\u2019s estate in Norfolk. That\u2019s her story anyway. The truth is she\u2019s not looking forward to spending time with the family, especially Charles (Farthing, Poldark) who she knows is having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, a married woman. When she finally arrives, she\u2019s greeted by stern-faced Major Alistair Gregory (Spall, The King\u2019s Speech), the former military officer in charge of everything at the estate. He sees all, hears all and knows everything that goes on there. Nothing gets by him. Her children are happy to see her; the rest of the family treats Di with indifference. Her only ally is her dresser Maggie (Hawkins, The Shape of Water) who mysterious gets sent back to London effectively leaving Di on her own.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Perhaps the most telling scene in Spencer<\/strong> is Christmas Eve supper where Diana imagines ripping off the pearl necklace given to her by Charles, the same kind he also gave to his mistress, and eating them with her pea soup. It\u2019s obviously symbolic of the pain and suffering she\u2019s experiencing spending the holidays with a cheating spouse and cold in-laws. Time and time again, she\u2019s reminded she\u2019s an outsider and doesn\u2019t belong. Her every move is scrutinized and criticized. She\u2019s not even permitted to visit her childhood home which is just next door.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although the symbolism tends to be heavy-handed, there\u2019s no question Spencer<\/strong> makes for compelling viewing. The production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas does more than suggest the royal home is a gilded cage; it comes right out and says it. The cinematography by Claire Mathon gives the movie the look of faded photographs from the past. The score by Jonny Greenwood is both haunting and unsettling, getting more so as Diana\u2019s mental state crumbles. It culminates in a late-night visit to her old, now-abandoned home where she remembers happier times as a girl and laments about not being able to go back.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting is good all around, but I\u2019m inclined to agree Stewart deserves recognition for her interpretation of Princess Diana, a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her sense of feeling trapped is palpable which will only heighten her sense of freedom when she ultimately breaks away from the marriage and everything that comes with it. Hers is an internalized performance. She brilliantly captures Di\u2019s sadness, despair and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Opening titles inform us Spencer <\/strong>is \u201ca fable from a true tragedy\u201d. It sets just the right tone. What\u2019s fact and what\u2019s fantasy? What\u2019s imagined and what\u2019s real? It doesn\u2019t matter because it comes down to the same thing. Diana\u2019s storybook romance didn\u2019t come with a happily ever after. It\u2019s a story made sadder by her untimely death a few years later. It\u2019s not a perfect telling, but it\u2019s a fascinating one.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spencer (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 117 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Pablo Larrain\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Steven Knight\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Johnny Greenwood\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Claire Mathon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 5, 2021 (US & UK)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing, Sean Harris, Sally Hawkins, Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry, Stella Gonet, Richard Sammel, Elizabeth Berrington, Lore Stefanek, Amy Manson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Spencer-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9707"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9769,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707\/revisions\/9769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}