Deborah Ross

A riveting cheese dream of a film: Spencer reviewed

Kristen Stewart looks nothing like Diana but is somehow Diana. I think it’s called ‘great acting’

Kristen Stewart's Diana is sad, fragile, volatile, lost, yearns for love, cannot find it, but she also has the strength not to play ball.​ Photo: Claire Mathon 
issue 06 November 2021

Go see Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, which stars Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, and the next day you will wonder: did I go to the cinema last night or did I have a cheese dream? Did she really clear the room of staff by saying she wished to masturbate, or was it the cheddar and crackers I foolishly had before bed? This is a total cheese dream of a film —did she really just eat a pearl? — but also it’s a riveting one as well as a thrillingly entertaining one. Plus it all somehow feels true even if it isn’t. Broken woman, unfeeling family. That seems about right.

This is a total cheese dream of a film – did she really just eat a pearl? – but also it’s a riveting one

With a super-smart script by Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Locke and, for television, Peaky Blinders), and directed by Larrain (Jackie), the film is set over three days at Sandringham in 1991 where the royal family have gathered to celebrate Christmas.

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