Spencer (film)

Spencer
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Pablo Larraín
Written by	Steven Knight
Produced by	Juan de Dios Larraín Jonas Dornbach Paul Webster Pablo Larraín Janine Jackowski Maren Ade
Starring	Kristen Stewart Timothy Spall Jack Farthing Sean Harris Sally Hawkins
Cinematography	Claire Mathon
Edited by	Sebastián Sepúlveda[1]
Music by	Jonny Greenwood
Production companies	Komplizen Film[2] Fabula[2] Shoebox Films[2] FilmNation Entertainment
Distributed by	Neon Topic Studios (United States) STXinternational (United Kingdom) DCM Film Distribution (Germany)[3] Sun Distribution (Chile)
Release dates	3 September 2021 (2021-09-03) (Venice) 5 November 2021 (2021-11-05) (United Kingdom and United States)
Running time	117 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom United States Germany Chile
Language	English
Budget	$18 million[4][5]
Box office	$17.4 million[6]

Spencer is a 2021 historical fiction^[7][8] psychological drama film directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Steven Knight. The film is inspired by Princess Diana's decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles and leave the British royal family. Kristen Stewart and Jack Farthing star as Princess Diana and Prince Charles respectively, joined by Timothy Spall, Sean Harris, and Sally Hawkins.

Spencer premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2021, and was theatrically released in the United Kingdom and the United States on 5 November 2021. The film has grossed $16 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, with Stewart's performance garnering widespread acclaim. For her portrayal of Diana, Stewart has been nominated for the Golden Globe Award and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress.

Plot[]

In December 1991, the British royal family prepares to spend the Christmas holidays at the Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. Among the attendees is Diana, Princess of Wales, whose marriage to Prince Charles has become strained due to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. As the sizeable staff of Sandringham Estate, led by the capable Major Alistair Gregory, prepare for the royals' arrival, Diana drives around the Norfolk countryside. On the verge of a breakdown, she avoids heading to Sandringham until running into Royal Head Chef Darren McGrady. She notes that the long-abandoned neighbouring estate, Park House, used to be her childhood home.

Diana arrives to an apathetic reception on Christmas Eve. Her sons William and Harry are excited to see her, but she does not attempt to socialise with the royal family, who mostly ignore her. Diana's only friend at the Estate is Royal Dresser Maggie, who encourages her to at once combat the royal family and fulfill the obligations expected of her. Diana finds a book on Anne Boleyn in her assigned bedroom. She begins to have dreams about Boleyn (including a hallucination of her at a Christmas Eve dinner where she imagines herself destroying a pearl necklace given to her by Charles and eating the pearls in soup), eventually coming to believe that Boleyn's ghost is haunting her in her capacity as a fellow abandoned royal wife. Diana tries to visit her childhood home but is stopped by royal guards, who initially mistake her for an intruder.

On Christmas Day, Diana attends the service at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, where she notices Camilla among the gathered crowd and is photographed by numerous intrusive journalists. She holds a difficult conversation with Charles, who rebuffs her concern over William and Harry's participation in a pheasant shoot the next day and advises her to develop a stronger sense of separation between her public and private lives. Charles privately arranges for Maggie to be sent to London and spreads rumours that she had planted the Boleyn book in Diana's room and made critical comments about her mental health; McGrady denies that she had done so when Diana questions him. Major Gregory attempts to encourage Diana to conform to the pressures of royal life by reminding her that the soldiers of the British Army die attempting to protect the interests of the Crown (by extension her interests); Diana responds by stating that she never asked anyone to die for her. After imagining wounding herself with a pair of wirecutters given to her by McGrady, Diana avoids the formal Christmas Day dinner, instead running to her childhood home and gaining access to it with the wirecutters. Memories of her happier girlhood overtake her, and she dances from room to room while imagining her younger selves. She considers committing suicide by throwing herself down a flight of stairs, but the hallucination of Boleyn stops her. Instead, she rips apart her pearl necklace.

On Boxing Day, Diana awakes in her room to find that Maggie has been called back from London. The two travel to a nearby beach, where Diana talks about her mental and marital problems. Maggie responds by confessing that she is in love with Diana. After leaving the beach, Diana rushes to the pheasant shoot and walks out in front of the crowd of hunters, mimicking the movements of the birds. She tells Charles that she is leaving the royal entourage and taking William and Harry to London, an arrangement to which Charles hesitatingly agrees. Diana bids farewell to Maggie and McGrady; Major Gregory returns the Boleyn book to the library. As they drive away, Diana and her children sing the song "All I Need Is a Miracle" by Mike & the Mechanics. In the distance, a scarecrow that Diana had created when younger is seen, now adorned with clothes from her early adulthood. After stopping for some fast food, Diana drives to London, where she begins the process of raising her children independently. She looks over the River Thames, uncertain of her future but no longer burdened by memory or royal responsibility.

Cast[]

Production[]

On 17 June 2020, it was announced that Pablo Larraín would direct Spencer, a film starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana.^[9] On 26 June 2020, it was reported that Neon had acquired the rights to distribute the film in the United States in a deal worth more than $4 million.^[10] STX Entertainment and DCM Film Distribution will distribute in the United Kingdom and Germany.^[3]

Filming began at the Schlosshotel Kronberg, Germany, in January 2021 with Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins, and Sean Harris joining the cast.^[11][12] Other filming locations were the Schloss Marquardt in Marquardt, north of the city of Potsdam, and Nordkirchen Castle.^[13] On 25 March, production moved to the UK for the final stretch of filming, with Jack Farthing joining the cast as Prince Charles, and the film wrapped on 27 April 2021.^[14] Jonny Greenwood composed the score.^[15] The score was released by Mercury KX on 12 November 2021.^[16]

Release[]

Spencer had its world premiere in competition at the Venice International Film Festival.^[17] It then screened at film festivals in Telluride,^[18] Toronto,^[19] London,^[20] Philadelphia,^[21][22] San Diego^[23] and Zurich.^[24] The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom and the United States on 5 November 2021.^[25]

Reception[]

Box office[]

As of 27 January 2022, Spencer has grossed $7.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $10.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $17.4 million.^[6]

In the United States and Canada, the film made $2.1 million from 996 theatres in its opening weekend. Audiences were reported to be 62% female, 85% over age 25, 70% Caucasian, 15% Latino and Hispanic, 12% Asian/other, and 3% African-American.^[26] In its second weekend, the film played in 1,265 theatres and made $1.53 million.^[27]

Critical response[]

Stewart garnered widespread critical acclaim for her performance as Princess Diana.

Upon the teaser trailer's release, Forbes reported that the role "thrusts" Stewart "into the Oscar race" for the Academy Award for Best Actress.^[28] After the film's world premiere, Variety also stated, "There's already been plenty of talk in Venice that the role will likely land Stewart her first Oscar nomination." The film received three-minute standing ovation at its world premiere,^[29] with critics lauding Stewart's performance as Diana.^[30]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 316 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Spencer can frustrate with its idiosyncratic depiction of its subject's life, but Kristen Stewart's finely modulated performance anchors the film's flights of fancy."^[31] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[32]

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter stated that the film "rests on Stewart's shoulders and she commits to the film's slightly bonkers excesses as much as to its moments of delicate illumination" and wrote that "[not] everything lands in Spencer, and I often wondered if the film was so set on bucking convention that it would alienate its audience. But it tells a sorrowful story we all think we know in a new and genuinely disturbing light."^[33] Reviewing the film for The Daily Telegraph, Robbie Collin wrote: "The 31-year-old Stewart – who will be instantly and justifiably awards-tipped for this – navigates this perilous terrain with total mastery, getting the voice and mannerisms just right but vamping everything up just a notch, in order to better lean into the film's melodramatic, paranoiac and absurdist swerves."^[34] Comparing the film to the Jacqueline Kennedy biopic Jackie (2016), also directed by Larraín, Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood stated that "Spencer is something else indeed, almost playing out in a conventional dramatic fashion, a more accessible approach in some ways, but also more ambitious as it is squarely from the point of view of its title character, purposely called Spencer to assure us that the person who once was, is well on the way to finding that very lost spirit again before it is too late."^[35]

Spencer was listed on many critics' top ten lists for 2021. ^[36]

Accolades[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spencer (film).

• Spencer at IMDb
• Spencer at Rotten Tomatoes
• Spencer at Metacritic
• Official screenplay