Rating: 3/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WllZh9aekDg

Raving reviews, a star actress, and the Emmy buzz surrounding Spencer, a “historical fiction psychological drama” about the late Princess Diana Spencer’s mental struggles beckoned me into the growing curiosity about the movie. Naturally, with all the buzz and prestige attached to it, one might have thought the film a spectacular new staple, to be remembered years and years from now. However, watching it unclearly on some random website on the internet on account of it being released nowhere but theaters, I was startlingly underwhelmed. The astonished reviews I’d been hearing puzzled me as I thought of multiple films I would have recommended to these viewers over this one. 

Storyline

Spencer is a fictional story about Princess Diana’s stay at the Queen’s estate for Christmas. It begins with Diana arriving late after getting lost in the estate she used to live in, a symbol for her having lost herself, and being weighed, which she protests intensely against, but ends up giving in. Diana, struggling with her anxiety and depression upon confrontation with her failed marriage and feelings of loneliness, begins to see the ghost of Anne Boleyn after reading a book mysteriously left for her. Her one friend and ally, Maggie, is also sent away, sending the distressed Diana into a further spiral. During the movie, Diana is shown in fits of depression and anxiety, confronted with her bulimia and suicidal thoughts, as well as cutting herself. The only light-hearted notes are her friendship with Maggie, who later reveals she has romantic feelings for Diana, and her relationship with her children, William and Harry, who are portrayed as her only saving graces.

The Acting

Though the portrayal of mental illness is haunting, particularly the bulimic parts, it is the focus of the movie and is portrayed very well by Kristen Stewart .The acting in the movie overall receives a solid 8/10 – it on its own was actually very good from all parties involved. The only problem was that dialogue was rather scarce and when it appeared, it was rather monotone and difficult to hear. I would have liked to hear more, as the writing actually was pretty deep and well thought out. The little dialogue there was, I did enjoy.

Why It Deserved My Rating

The reason for my lack of astonishment was that the movie, although the idea was great and it had immense potential, had a ton of unwarranted and frankly unnecessary moments. For example, Maggie being in love with Diana. Maggie was introduced as Diana’s only friend and confidant- the only person she trusted. Maggie leaving, rumors about her betraying Diana, and the overall loneliness Diana feels were all cheaply solved by the filmmakers for no apparent reason. Maggie was based off of Princess Diana’s real handmaiden who was her best friend, who never held romantic feelings for Diana as far as the public knew. So if anything, leaving Maggie just as a best friend to Diana would have been more accurate as well as more personal, as when you hold romantic feelings towards someone, you cannot help but be their confidant, but when you are simply a friend, it makes it all the more meaningful as you are not indebted to that person the way a lover might be. 

Not only this, but, to be frank, the movie was downright confusing. In a way, this could be interpreted as symbolism for how confusing and chaotic mental illness is, but if it was meant to be that, it most certainly was not executed well enough. For one thing, Diana continuously hallucinates her maid/ friend Maggie being there, and then her not being there (for reference, Maggie was sent away by Prince Charles). The viewer, through extremely constrained dialogue, is left to come to their own conclusions about a lot of things. Being a more visual film, which there is nothing wrong with, it is very head-scratching to have the camera pan to Maggie standing there smiling at Diana because you do not know if she is surprising Diana with her return or if Diana is hallucinating her. As a whole, it is just very puzzling to watch and be forced to teeter-totter between various conclusions of Maggie’s whereabouts. Another instance that was insanely confusing was the dance montage in the midst of Diana’s consideration of suicide. Even typing this out, I cannot help but scoff at the sheer randomness that sentence gives off. After Diana ventures to her old home in the midst of a long-overdue breakdown, she stands at the top of the broken stairs that make it clear to the viewer will most likely break under her weight when she attempts to go down them. However, the film makers instead decide to turn this into Diana considering committing suicide by falling down them, no doubt a reference to her real life suicide attempt in 1982. Skipping past how confusing the abrupt jump from her expected challenge of coming down the stairs to suicide was, after hallucinating Anne Boleyn again, all of a sudden, there is a random dance montage throughout the Queen’s estate, spanning a few minutes long. To say I was confused is a severe understatement. Looking at it from a filmmaker’s view, this was most likely meant to be a juxtaposition between the dark atmosphere of her mind and the light, carefreeness she used to possess through dance. However, it seems the writers forgot to include that Diana had a passion for dance. I had to look up why dancing was even a factor in this movie, and it turned out that the real life Princess Diana found comfort and safety through dance. This is all well and good, but how were viewers supposed to know that? Not only this, but, though unintentionally, it looked as if the movie was completely negating Diana’s real life suicidal struggles, as well as suicidal struggles in general. When one is considering committing, dance montages do not play through their minds, and it is actually very disrespectful to Princess Diana to bring her suicidal struggles down to that. 

Lastly, the thing I found most shocking and confusing, not to mention disrespectful, was the ending. One could argue that there is no clear ending for a movie like this, in which the main struggles are mental illnesses of various sorts, but it seems to me as if the directors, once again, trying to be symbolic, failed in this area, too. The ending consists of Diana finally standing up to Prince Charles by not allowing her young children to hunt, and driving to a drive-through to get fast food, a symbol of her, at least temporarily, overcoming bulimia. Then, Diana, happy with her children, stares off with a smile onto the waters of London, and the movie finishes with a closeup on her content face. Though, on one hand, this ending could be seen as fitting as it is a temporary fix to a long term problem (Diana’s mental health, marriage struggles, and feeling like an outsider to the royals), similar to mental illness, which can be solved temporarily but inevitably comes back, I think it is pitiful. After such a serious movie containing struggles of ED, suicidal tendencies, cutting oneself, depression, and anxiety, it seems absolutely undeserving to end the movie with Diana laughing and driving to a fast food place with her children- it essentially makes a mockery out of all the struggles she went through during the movie, as these issues aren’t that easily solved. Once again, I can understand the vision of the director and writers, but it is flat out disrespectful and frankly, does not make sense, to end the movie on such a light note after being dark for the entire duration. 

Memorable Quotes

1. In a scene where Diana and her children William and Harry are pretending to be soldiers and asking each other questions, this conversation occurs:

William: “Major William to soldier Diana- tell the Major what’s happened to make you so sad.”

Diana: “Sir, I don’t know what you mean, sir.”

William: “Not true, soldier.”

Diana: “Sir, the past, sir.”

William: “I think it’s the present, soldier.”

Harry: “I think it’s the future.”

1. In a conversation between Prince Charles and Princess Diana, where Charles essentially tells Diana to get it together because she must:

Charles: “For the people.”

Diana: “The people?”

Charles: “Yes, because they don’t want us to be people.”

1. Major Gregory, a new bodyguard, tells Diana a story about his military days as advice:

Major Gregory: “I had a good friend beside me. A good friend. Soldiers become more than friends, you know? Anyway, to stop our legs from shaking, he was telling me a story. He was brought up in a farm up in the Highlands and he was… he was talking about some horse that his father had bought at the fair that couldn’t be tamed. Lots of funny stories about this wild horse throwing his brothers around and such. But then he said… ‘But then, one fine morning…’ In that moment, the bullet hit him. Back of the head, out through his nose. And he fell onto me and… I hugged him. Close. Saved myself from the next bullet… I asked myself, who do we soldiers die for? Then I remembered my oath. We all make an oath of loyalty to the Crown. It’s not the human beings, you see? But it’s the oath you chose to believe. Their faults, their weaknesses, that’s not what you think about when you’re in an alley in the Falls Road. You think only about your oath. And what that means.”

Overall

The movie had a lot of potential and I can definitely see what the writers were going for. However, it was not executed correctly and came off very wrong. With a few tweaks of the script, this movie could have been exponentially better and I am sorry to say my high expectations were most certainly not met upon watching Spencer.