Spencer (2021)
During her Christmas holidays with the royal family at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, Diana decides to leave her marriage to Prince Charles.
Cast and Information
Directed By: Pablo Larraín
Written By: Steven Knight
Starring: Timothy Spall, Kristen Stewart, Sally Hawkins, Sean Harris, Amy Manson, Stella Gonet, Jack Farthing, Laura Benson, Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry
Country: UK
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Spencer belongs to 14 collections
1. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)
2. Capsules, guest reviews, list candidates... (366weirdmovies) (collaborative: moderated by sesito71 - 5 stars)
3. Oscar Nominated Feature Films 2022 (collaborative: moderated by Corbad - 4 stars)
4. Sight and Sound 50 Best Films of 2021 (public: TychoCelchuu - 2 stars)
5. Royalty (collaborative: moderated by CCLZA - 1 star)
6. DtC Doubling the Canon 2023 Nominees (collaborative: moderated by lineuphere - 1 star)
7. Non-suicidal self-injury (collaborative: moderated by Daria)
8. 78th Venice International Film Festival (2021) ~p~ (collaborative: moderated by 5Z5qjRCfM2)
9. Like Stories of Old: Best Movies of 2021 (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub)
10. Curzon Ripon (public: mandy)
11. Remembered Films (public: JanaMarie)
12. seen in 2021 (public: sproost)
13. Giltiga 2021-filmer (public: caffe)
14. TAC movie discussion ~o~ (public: 5Z5qjRCfM2)
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| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 4 |  |
JLFM | 52 22nd |
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Stumbles into a lot of the pitfalls that Pablo Larraín managed to avoid with Jackie. A one-note sadness dirge that provides minimal revelatory insight into Princess Diana, instead contenting itself with an excess of tacky touches and bio-tragedy-pic clichés. While Jackie used creative cinematography and a great lead performance to suggest the haunted quality of its protagonist, Spencer literally conjures the ghosts of martyrs past so as to ensure the audience doesn't miss the subtext.
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| 3 |  |
Leonardis | 88 59th |
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Not quite a great as I was hoping, but it’s still really well made. Larraín’s directing is very skillful and the cinematography shines quite a bit. The real star of the show, and the reason you should want to watch it, is Kristen Stewart in the lead role. I honestly hate that I couldn’t understand her damn whispering though. Soft-spoken or not, I should be able to hear a movie, yes? Still, this is a great movie if one goes in treating it as the “fable” it promises to be.
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| 2 | sellis | 72 40th |
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A couple great surreal moments, a uniquely haunting atmosphere, but mostly underwhelming and forced.
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| 2 |  |
jetboy | 30 2nd |
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What an absolute waste of Kristen's talent. They spend 2 hours painting Diana as highly unstable, full of hallucinations, and constantly suicidal. An offensive portrayal.
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| 2 |  |
deaddilly | 70 48th |
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A hard film to grasp. It's skeletal and hallucinatory depiction of Diana's turmoil almost works against humanizing her. Larrain never quite penetrates the mystique of Diana and instead is intent on developing a sort of martyrdom for her. But it is beautiful looking and I like that the dissonant tone of this film never quite resolves itself.
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| 2 | doyler29 | 90 86th |
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I really love this film. A lot of it has to do with it's very heated and florid visuals, bringing us deeply into Diana's headspace ... slipping in and out of fantasy and memory, while being fairly grounded in a real setting. It's also Jonny Greenwood's score which is, as always, quite wonderful. A lot is Stewart's performance, which is not really an imitation of Diana, which is appropriate since she's really playing a highly fictionalized counterpart.
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| 2 |  |
rihrey | 63 82nd |
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kristen's performance was honestly amazing. the film itself is also quite good although definitely nothing that wowed me a lot.
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| 1 |  |
frederic_g54 | 8 78th |
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Stewart totally disappears in her role; arguably her best performance to date. Larraín builds further upon what already worked in Jackie - at least in terms of mood and production value - only this film added an extra layer by making the titular character’s predicament one I could actually sympathise with. All in all, a dark yet beautifully balanced fable that reimagines Diana’s time with the royal family like that of a caged and wounded individual vying to escape her imprisonment.
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| 1 |  |
KasperL | 60 50th |
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The quality of Larrain's filmmaking is undeniable, and I applaud his approach to making a biopic. Unfortunately, the film never really got under my skin.
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| 1 |  |
Ofterdingen | 56 43rd |
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A one-note movie about enstrangement wrapped in artsy elements. Stewart is sometimes good, other times Kristen Stewart dressed as Diana.
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| 1 |  |
Neonman | 58 13th |
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An up-front and uncomfortable portrait of a royal kind of anxiety, which is all well portrayed through great acting, directing, and editing. But it doesn't amount to much, aside from an obvious ending about "loving your kids" or whatever. Diana seems somewhat fully realised, but the secondary characters are cardboard (especially Jack Farthing's angsty husband character, which pales in comparison to his angsty husband character in The Lost Daughter).
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| 1 |  |
glumpy_99 | 98 95th |
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A true masterpiece - not an indictment of the royals, not even a biography or celebration of Diana herself, but a supremely confident, bold, at times mordantly hilarious journey through the mind of a trapped animal; painful and riveting in equal measure. It does help that Stewart does her best work, creating a Diana who is familiar, but also a uniquely sad and haunting creation; knowing what the next years would bring makes the "triumphant" finale unbearably sad and poignant.
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| 1 |  |
natebarrios | 60 31st |
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can't help but compare to Jackie, which I think is aided by its narrative framing to help people understand its protagonist as she sees herself. this one's a little more spread out in the ether. tougher to grasp. more atmospheric. great score and great lead performance though.
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| 1 |  |
karlson | 65 30th |
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Here's the thing with Spencer: is it the form or the content that causes getting furiously annoyed? at first I thought it's the form and, thereby, it's theatrical, soaked with intellectualisation and heavily overacted. But it might be the content and then i'm suddenly annoyed with megalomaniac Royalty instead of the makers of this movie, and that is genuine. The 'lovely lady di' is just the next narcissist who reaches too high and falls. I will come back to this.
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| 1 |  |
Yoshinaruto | 70 71st |
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Loved the style and score. Possibly Stewart’s best performance. It’s a little long and dragged a bit towards the end, but I liked the final scenes. Definitely not for everyone, but I appreciate films like this for being as unique as they are.
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| 1 |  |
feritdgn | 76 76th |
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Fascinating score, stunning visuals, gripping dialogues, great storytelling, an outstanding film. Kristen Stewart is dreamy. While watching her, I felt Diana's depression, melancholy and tragedy. Spencer is one of the best movies of the year. (11/22/2021 - Cinemaximum Kanyon)
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| 1 |  |
PianoSama | 70 82nd |
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Kristen Stewart's magnetic turn as the most beloved royal of a generation- maybe of all time- is the big reason to watch this, but there are others. The impeccable set design, the excellent costumes, beautifully messy score, and intricate weaving of true tragedy with fantasy and a Christmas fable. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation scenes, namely the pool table & each one between Diana & the head chef guy. I'm iffy on biopics- Larrain's Jackie bored me to tears, actually- but this was good.
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| Average Percentile 50.63% from 611 Ratings |  |