Film Screening: Spencer

On Christmas weekend in 1991, the marriage between Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, spirals apart. And we get to watch. Director Pablo Larraín and screenwriter Steven Knight ingeniously weave a narrative that stays scrupulously close to known historical fact with a dark, dream-like fairytale gone wrong, a mashup of the official history, SNOW WHITE and THE SHINING. The film’s power emerges directly from the fearless and deeply committed performance of Kristen Stewart, imagining Diana mercurial and haunted, while Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall and Sean Harris play the royal staff torn between their obligation to help control Diana and their desire to support her.