Spencer: A Psychological Thriller Wrapped in a Biopic

As a subgenre of dramatized non-fiction, the biopic is one of the most complex stories a movie can tell. A biopic, unlike a straight biography, will take sizable creative liberties with the life of the subject. These liberties can be everything from lines of dialogue between two characters to add context to full on fabrications of events so long as they do not broadly contradict what is public knowledge about the person. Mileage will vary with the liberties taken, depending on what public perception of surrounding people is, and how deeply the subject of the movie is involved with the production.

Spencer takes quite a few liberties on multiple fronts with the story of what happened to Princess Diana towards the end of her marriage to Prince Charles. It is important to note that the movie takes a truly biased take on what caused the circumstances leading up to her death and places the blame almost exclusively on the royal family. This is inaccurate considering that the blame is considered by most to be split between the royal family’s treatment of her as well as the media’s obsession with both her and her marriage. That said, the argument could be made that a just under two-hour movie is not enough time to devote to diving deeply into both sides of that coin so focusing on one creates the clearest picture.

The biggest and most notable draw to this movie is a performance from Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana that makes her a frontrunner to win Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Academy Awards. She nails every aspect of the character from small nuances in mannerism and voice to larger psychological shifts that are likely fictional.

Beyond the acting performance that really carries the movie, there are plenty of interesting direction choices that act symbiotically with this performance to elevate it to something truly different. As the movie goes along and Diana’s grasp on sanity starts to deteriorate, the level of needless consumption by the royal family increases. This creates a sharp contrast between the royal family’s façade of civility and what Diana is going through. At one point, she is traveling through the corridors of the manor and there is a voiceover of one of the cooks reading off the extravagant Christmas menu for about three minutes.

One of the running themes of the movie is the focus on tradition and the past compared to moving forward. Early on, Diana says, “there is no future here, and past and present are one in the same” when talking to her sons. This is reflected throughout the movie as tradition reigns and dictates what Diana can and can’t do, down to having outfits picked out for her that are micromanaged down to which meal each outfit is for. The theme is interlaced through the plot to such a point that Diana going back to her childhood home is an integral part of the emotional resolution of the movie.

The movie also does a lot with utilizing different camera angles to force perspective and elicit an emotional response from the viewer. Beyond the traditional sweeping wide shots that would ordinarily be used in a movie like this to provide a sense of scale, there are a large amount of close in shots designed to emulate the anxiety that Diana is going through. It is a simple trick, take the camera close to her face and move it around slightly, usually in the opposite direction of where she is facing to make the screen feel smaller. When these scenes are contrasted with scenes designed to show off how large everything in the manor is, it can generate an artificial almost claustrophobia in the viewer to tremendous effect.

It’s rare for a movie to come along that executes what it does at this level of precision. Everything about the movie works the way it is displayed. The main issue a viewer may bump into is that the movie does take this tragic story and turn it into a psychological thriller. The movie is tasteful in the way it does this, however it does take the life of a woman whose life was repackaged into entertainment to the point where it drove her to her death and once again repackage that same life into entertainment yet again. For some people, that may not sit well with them.

Rating: 9/10