Spencer reviews

[Reza]

But to me the problem is that i found Diana rather boring and not really likeable.

[Cinemanolis]

I just watched this. Expected much more from Stewart. But to me the problem is that i found Diana rather boring and not really likeable. So probably this film isn't for me. Great music and art direction but apart from that the film didn't;t speak to me. At least it was much more interesting and daring than the Naomi Watts film. I am really interested to see if the critics will buy the all the Best Actress hoopla.

[Big Magilla]

You may be right. With another actress, say, Emma Corrin who plays Diana so well in The Crown, the film might seem more about "the people's princess" than an actress playing a part as it does with Stewart.

All I could see until it got to that scene with Hawkins, was Stewart in a blonde wig, whining, then partially opening her mouth to show just her two front teeth the way she and no one else does, closing her mouth, whining some more, partially opening her mouth, repeat, repeat, then crying, and leaning over the toilet after puking when not imagining Anne Boleyn coming back to life to haunt her.

She's been the self-described Oscarologists' (such a ridiculous word) pick for the Oscar for so long that it would probably be a shock if she isn't nominated, but I hope it doesn't happen.

[Sabin]

I admire a lot of the elements and choices in the making of Spencer but the whole enterprise is sandbagged by one big problem: Kristen Stewart. The problem with famous people playing other famous people is occasionally they end up in this weird middle-ground territory where they're making very intelligent choices (often described as "channeling" the person) but the choices are all you can see. All I could see with Kristen Stewart was someone remembering their lines and their appropriate physical gestures. Maybe not all the time but just three-quarters or so. It proved to be an almost insurmountable barrier between immersing myself in the film.

This is a real shame because there are a lot of very interesting ideas in the film as well as observed details. Even though some of the script is a bit overwritten and obviously symbolic at times, it has a very clear view of the monarchy and this film puts a very human face on it. I also really enjoyed how at times it felt like a haunted Christmas story. I actually wish it skewed a little more in that direction. It's been said often and elsewhere but I appreciated how this film re-contextualized the Diana story as an ultimately hopeful one of escape, as a positive look at motherhood, womanhood, and friendship. The most surprising scene in the film is near the end, shared between Stewart and Sally Hawkins, who reveals something most unexpected to her. But forgive me, there is a lot of desperately on the nose material to slog through to get to that. I joked to my friends that at its worst, the film felt like an episode of Saturday Night Live featuring Kristen Stewart in a filmed bit called "Royal Movie," especially when she eats her necklace pearls at the table.

As I look back on Spencer, I have fonder memories than when I was sitting through it. Don't listen to me if the Kristen Stewart performance worked for you. I like what it's trying to do quite a bit but I couldn't pretend I felt otherwise about the lead performance.

[Big Magilla]

I may have been lukewarm on the recent real-life portrayals of Will Smith, Andrew Garfield and Jennifer Hudson in King Richard, tick, tick, Boom!, and Respect, respectively, but the rapturous acclaim for Kristen Stewart in this one I don't get at all. The only thing I've seen Stewart in, in which I thought she gave a truly commendable performance, was Clouds of Sils Maria.

I was a fan of Pablo Larrain's Jackie and Natalie Portman's performance in it, but aside from this film's last few minutes in which Diana gets a pep talk from dresser Sally Hawkins and "escapes" with her boys, I found nothing compelling in Stewart's performance and certainly nothing deserving of her supposed front-runner status as this year's actress to beat for the Oscar and everything leading up to it.

[Sabin]

Okri wrote
I watched this and tick...tick...,boom! back to back and the difference in what I brought to each is rather amusing.

What did you think of tick... Tick... Boom!

[Okri]

I watched this and tick...tick...,boom! back to back and the difference in what I brought to each is rather amusing.

I'm not particularly interested in stories about this monarchy and my ignorance is pretty vast. I've only seen clips of The Crown. I don't even know if I've actually heard Diana speak (was there any footage of her in The Queen?). I don't remember being placed in the timeline at all outside of it being the Christmas weekend (though I might have missed something). So I was operating with largely a blank slate.

I liked it, but I'm not sure how much. Every adjective that pops to mind feels like a double edged compliment. The narrow focus and structure aided it's intensity and I really liked that. But it really felt like not bringing as much awareness to the proceedings hindered my own enjoyment.

That said, I actually am a little more positive with regards to it's Oscar chances - I think the Jackie trio (score, costume and actress) would be the absolute basement of what it could get. Every scene seems to highlight some craft element and while below the line does seem like it would be dominated by a few (a la 2019) I still think it's quite competitive.

[Mister Tee]

We've seen so many of these playing-a-famous-person performances in the past two decades. Some just border on celebrity impersonation (Jamie Foxx's Ray -- which in many ways started this run -- is for me the epitome of that); others don't really go for total imitation, but try to capture an essence (Phoenix's Johnny Cash, Michelle Williams's Marilyn) -- an approach I tend to prefer. What Kristen Stewart does here has the virtues of the second, but manages to come close to pulling off the first in the bargain, though without letting you see the effort involved. I don't want to go overboard and use words like "channeling", but...she comes really close to just sliding into Diana's persona, in ways that I wouldn't even have known to look for. flipp mentions her gait. I swear to you, till I watched this movie, I don't know I was consciously aware of how Diana walked -- but when I saw Stewart flow down the hall, I recognized it instantly. Same with the rest of her performance -- the delicate voice, the sidelong looks. This is a full-on transformation, but not one that's showing off what it's doing.

And Stewart does more than just evoke Diana. She's also the dominant central figure in a combination haunted house/diary of a mad housewife film (in both cases, the house in question being the enormous royal estate at Christmas). Diana's just discovered the semi-open secret -- that her marriage is beyond recovery -- and it brings her to a near-full alienation from her surroundings, and most of the people she's spending her holiday with. This is conveyed partly by her director Pablo Larain, who can make a walk down a long hallway speak volumes about Diana's moods. But it also comes from Stewart's every glancing or extended interaction -- sympathetic ones with favored dresser Sally Hawkins and head of kitchen Sean Harris, borderline hostile ones with the endlessly patient Timothy Spall (who isn't responsible for the awful situation, but has to try and manage it). And we also get to see a Diana we never truly saw in life: her bountifully loving relationship with then-young William and Harry. Her scenes with them seem her most genuinely happy moments in the film -- the "Soldier William" scene is absolutely wonderful -- and it feels exactly right that it's they who provoke her to her final gestures: the ones that break her free of the royal stultification that has threatened to engulf her over the film's run-time.

Larain, as noted, does a wonderful job conveying Diana's mind-set -- through visuals (like the sight of Camilla outside the church), grotesque fantasy (the instantly memorable pearl soup scene), and the music, which slides (often imperceptibly) between classical violin and disorienting jazz -- and the culminates in a finale of pop-rock so joyous it makes the audience feel it's escaping oppression just as much as its heroine has.

In some ways, this ending is a counteract to the mythology of Diana. I think, in the public's tabloid mind, Diana's life was taken away by the Windsors -- figuratively by her treatment while married to Charles, then literally that dark night in Paris. To most people's way of thinking, it was a constant trajectory: the early death just the final chapter of a story that began when Charles married her under false pretense. This movie suggests that, even if she had fewer than 6 years post this Christmas tale, they were 6 years lived on her own terms, under her own power. This Diana is not a tragic figure; she's, finally, a heroic one. A happy ending.

Having said all this in praise, I must add that this is not a film for everyone. I'd say it's 45 degrees further surreal/arty past Jackie, and Jackie was thought too impersonal/alienating by many. I'm not certain how broadly popular this film will be, especially in that parochial area we patrol -- the Oscars. Some level of (hate the word) "accessibility" often determines how successful a film will be with those voters. I imagine the performance has been praised highly enough that a nomination for Stewart is a certainty. But I wouldn't count on any accompanying nominations, and winning in such a circumstance can be difficult. I'm not trying to rain on a parade -- I just got through saying how fine I think the performance and film are. But I do think it's wise to keep a cool head, and not necessarily assume the crowd will follow. We'll have to see about that.

[flipp525]

Wow. I went into Spencer not really knowing much and the movie is kind of a strangely intense horror film in many ways. Reza made a comparison to The Shining and I definitely saw several instances of that as well.

Kristen Stewart is very impressive in this and presents a pitch perfect portrait of Diana — from the gait to the accent to the looks — that felt almost ghostly at times. It felt almost definitive. The scenes with William and Harry are some of the most successful in the film. And that Christmas Eve dinner sequence is simply bizarre and Stewart just nails it. The camera work there takes your breath away.

Sally Hawkins is really marvelous in her role and I would love to see a surprise nod for her this year. Her performance is limited in screen-time but she makes a real impression.

[Mister Tee]

Two things I'd have thought I never wanted to see again -- yet another bio-pic, and yet another rehash of Charles/Diana (I'm apparently the only one not wowed by its recent depiction on The Crown -- I found it the least interesting season to date, but awards groups swooned).

But, it's Pablo Larain, and I loved what he did with the similarly-unpromising Jackie, and this seems to be getting at least comparable/maybe even more enthusiastic reactions. So, I'm excited.

Two caveats: remember, despite the critical heat, Jackie did fairly poorly with the Oscars, and Portman's initial strong hope in lead actress vaporized. And I note some of the reviews describe the film (and Stewart's performance) as a bit complex/detached...which reminds me of how many characterized Julianne Moore's work in Far from Heaven, a film I initially thought had sure best actress chances, but which fell to a fake nose in the end.

[Sabin]

Strong reviews. Best Actress contender.

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