Spencer

Or: The Living Ghost

I was not expecting a gothic horror show. The new biography of Diana, Princess of Wales placards itself as “a true fable of a real tragedy,” which is as fair and honest an epitaph as you could wish, but it goes well out of its way to make the unfortunate into the horrifying.

It’s Christmas 1991 and Diana (Kristen Stewart) is summoned to Sandringham (or it’s nearest German equivalent) to spend her holidays with the in laws. A harrowing position, made all the more so by increased public scrutiny, the Crowns chilly attitude and the fact that her husband (Jack Farthing) is conducting a longstanding affair more or less under her nose. Her only solace is her two boys and dresser Maggie (Sally Hawkins), but even those are opportunities are thin on the ground. So, haunted by her childhood and the disappointed queens of Christmas past, she seeks out in her words, “a bit of fun.” Cue hallucinations, recriminations, and worse.

Aside from the disturbance of Diana’s hallucinations, which are quite destructive indeed, we also get an awful look at her struggles with bulimia and her absolute git of a husband, which made tongues cluck all over the theater. Her fragile state is underscored and indeed foisted on us by the most forceful score I can remember hearing: jazz and classical music so heavy and discordant it should be classified as a blunt instrument. Nine out of ten dentists should disavow it for the ruinous state of ones teeth after. The triumphal escape from Sandringham is also scored obscenely obviously but you tend not to mind.

Not to say that a big creepy house (or two) and her personal demons are all Diana has to deal with. She is hounded by Major Alister Gregory (Timothy Spall), in a truly sterling performance as both creepy housekeeper and embodiment of the tradition she keeps trying to buck. His callousness especially as she puts herself closer and closer to harms ways chilling. A more warming presence comes from Sean Harris as Darren McGrady, the Royal Head Chef, whose own Christmas preparations are like highly coordinated battlefront (the movie begins with the opulent fare arriving by military convoy, a pointed but slippery metaphors). His is a steady calm presence the theater to her highnesses anxious flights, “They do not laugh” he says of his staff, when asked if they are spreading rumors about her. “They do not laugh. They love you, and they are worried.”

Diana gives them a great deal to be worried about. Stewart, breathless and flinching walks with poise but the distinct impression that all her bones are broken and grating against the fractures. Her brightest scenes of the film come not from the two young princesses (though the movie tries its best) but when she’s with Maggie, an electrical connection that pulse through their oft clasped hands and soft smiles. They bring some heat to the chilly halls of Sandringham.

But we know what’s coming. And while Diane manages to claw out a victory for life and liberty, she’s already on her way to shedding herself and becoming something timeless and tortured, a living ghost.