“Spencer” (2021) is a fictional, oneiric account of Princess Diana’s December 1991 Christmas. The title refers to her maiden last name. Pablo Lerrain, who is best known for “Jackie” (2016), directed this film. I am unfamiliar with his work, but it is another sad, pretty, wealthy, iconic woman period movie.
Unlike “Jackie,” I wanted to see the movie, but not enough to go to the theaters during a pandemic. I ended up paying more than I would if I had gone to a theater: $19.99 on Amazon Prime, but I am not mad. The cost of production was well worth the price. I was not interested in the Royal family until Megan Markle, but since a movie is several steps above a tabloid news source, it feels like an elevated indulgence. I want to see pretty people and property, and I got that, but other than as a passing diversion, it is helpful to ask myself the same questions that I asked when I saw “Jackie.” Why do we need more visual media about Princess Diana? Did Kristen Stewart do a good job? Why do I care about this movie?
Do we need “Spencer?” Maybe I would find it more inspiring if I was a beautiful mother in a suffocating relationship and use it to spur myself to action. It does encourage viewers to tap into your best past self and eschew convention and expectations, but I could get that from another movie. Because I have not watched “The Crown” or other visual media about Diana (or remember doing so), by grabbing my attention, it stands out, but because of the director’s reputation, not the subject matter per se. After watching it, I would applaud it as providing a visual depiction of the impulses behind mental health struggles and contrasting it to when the person stabilizes.
While “Spencer” is technically a Christmas movie, it is not a happy one. The film focuses on Diana’s mental state at a low point in her life because of her isolation in a toxic environment with a family that disapproves of her and rigid restrictions on all her actions. It provides a welcome alternative to the saccharine family dramas. Here is a gorgeous woman in a lavish setting who is understandably miserable. It is like Ridley Scott’s most recent films in which we get to congratulate ourselves for having a single advantage over those who have it better than us in numerous ways, but more textured for the way that it explores mental health with fantasy sequences almost indistinguishable from the real ones. While it is a dramatization, it apparently reflects real life struggles that Diana had with eating disorders, depression, self-harm. Because I am unfamiliar with Diana, I was initially annoyed as I was with “The Iron Lady” (2011) because a film is creating an imagined world of delusion for famous women protagonists, but not their male counterparts. A quick Google search helped me appreciate that while it is not a faithful recreation of events, it provides a psychological snapshot regarding why Diana decided to lean in to standing out instead of continuing to beat herself up for falling short. I found the self-harm scenes difficult to watc, especially the wire cutters.
Does Stewart succeed in playing Diana? Maybe. Again I did not pay a lot of attention to the icon, but I think that she looked and sounded like her while retaining some of Stewart’s trademark physical moves that denote insecurity and discomfort with being the center of attention. For the majority of “Spencer,” Stewart is a bit erratic or hysterical, and I wondered if it was accurate, but by the end, I felt as if I was taken on an emotional journey and got somewhere so I do not have an issue with her choices. It is a bold move to cast an American as one of the most famous British people, but considering Stewart’s own personal struggle under the spotlight, it adds an additional layer of significance. Is she playing Diana or making a statement about herself as a woman in a high profile business that requires her to not be herself while giving her whole self to the task. It is the most entry in a growing list of biographical roles: Savannah Koop in “JT LeRoy” (2018) and Jean Seberg in “Seberg” (2019).
Why do I care about “Spencer?” I don’t. I was struck by one scene in which Diana and Prince Charles (Jack Farthing in his second role as an inadequate husband) discuss the idea of two selves, the public and private self. “You have to be able to make your body do things you hate,” which hits Diana like a blow as if he is saying that he hates her, especially considering that she says earlier, “They fill your eggs with princes right away.” It is worse than adultery. Her married life is fiction, and the real relationship is the illicit one. If there is greater significance to this conversation, it is a clash between the neurotypical and neurodivergent world in which average people think that it is normal to divide the self for consumption whereas the neurodivergent person only has a single self and experiences a psychological violence with society’s expectation for fracturing.
“Spencer” equates Diana to a partridge, a beautiful, but stupid bird that exists for the Royal family to hunt. In the introduction, a dead partridge is seen lying on the road with its feathers rustled with the caravan of cars carrying military protection and food for them. Her beauty is also described as her weapon. Diana worries about getting assassinated so Charles can move on. The denouement involves a hunt, and the sons’ introduction to this fracturing of self, but on another level, there is a connotation that they would be killing their mother or at least that side of her in themselves. No one in the Royal Family enjoys any of the protocols during this holiday yet they obey them. It becomes a battle of weapons, for her soul/life and those of her children. In the end, we get an eighties song to denote triumph, but it is silly and kind of trampled on the moment.
“Spencer” felt too much like an elaborate fragrance ad for it to stick with me. I have a question.
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If the Major (Timothy Spall) left the Anne Boleyn book for her, was he messing with her or, considering the actual inspiration that Boleyn plays in “Spencer,” being subversive and rooting for her in his own way? There is less ambiguity since everyone loves her to a certain degree, but she does not feel it. “I want our Princess of Wales to want something.” “Spencer” is about getting Diana to choose life and feel loved. The Major is emblematic of how loving a person is not the same as making a person feel loved.