“A fable from a true tragedy”, I will start as the film started, with this statement. The director is clearly telling us from the beginning that this film is a work of fiction. Of course, cinema is subjective, ironically so it the public’s view of the royal family and Diana herself. Influenced by personal feelings, tastes or opinions but most of all, the media. Spencer (2021) delves deep into the psyche of Princess Diana and depicts her inner turmoil on screen for all of us to see, again, ironically similar to her fishbowl existence. Spencer is both a surrealist and absurdist feature, at one point Diana eats a pearl necklace, and at another, the paranoid princess speaks to the ghost of Anne Boleyn. This film is far from an authentic portrait of Diana but it will make you think and it will most certainly make you uncomfortable. There is no doubt Princess Diana was a catalyst in the royal family, she didn’t fit in and she was forced out in every sense of the word. Spencer (2021) tries to show us the ‘behind the scenes’ moments with Diana and this film tries so desperately to evoke passionate emotions from its audiences but I was left feeling cheated. Spencer (2021) was just a load of fluff, and in no way am I discrediting or unsympathetic towards Diana, she had a tragic story that deserved better than this film, it was close to being unimaginative rather than insightful or loving towards her character, she deserved better.
My expectations were not met, I was left surprised yet confused. I want to address that I understand what the filmmaker wanted to achieve, they wanted to shock us, they wanted us to leave the cinema thinking, did that happen? How much of this was true? And they did, I was shocked and I did wonder but going into this film I wanted to see something different. I wanted something that was going to keep me on the edge of my seat, something that was going to make me fall in love with Diana but instead we got a load of nothingness. Personally, I found the soundtrack to take me out of the fantasy, it was so distracting and jarring it felt like it was for the wrong movie. That was definitely a factor that ruined the experience for me, this feature could have been far more powerful with little to no music but instead we got the completely opposite. Spencer (2021) has had some profoundly positive reviews and the Oscar hype is beyond me, for performance, maybe, but for best film, absolutely not. Nonetheless, this film tried to do so many things, it tried to make us fall in love with Diana all over again but it didn’t. Again, it was a combination of long shots and long silences.
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