We only got two words out of Princess Diana in the first trailer for “Spencer,” but in our latest full look at the film, Kristen Stewart as Diana closes the clip by dropping a bombshell: “Will they kill me, do you think?”
We’re guessing that’s a sly joke. But after “Spencer” premiered at Venice, Telluride and TIFF, audiences were quick to discover that director Pablo Larraín’s Princess Diana film was hardly an episode of “The Crown.” Rather, it’s a colorful but far sadder examination of the royals with Stewart’s struggling Diana at the center.
Early reviews of the film have heralded Stewart’s performance and its melodramatic flourishes that almost certainly break from history, or at least from the Diana the public knew.
“Spencer” focuses on the one weekend when Princess Diana decided to leave her marriage to Prince Charles during Christmas 1991. Spencer was her maiden name before she wed the British royal, and the film is an imagining of what might have happened in those few days before the wedding, rather than a strict historical document.
Starring alongside Stewart are Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins, Jack Farthing and Sean Harris. Larraín, who went to similar spellbinding and creative narrative lengths with “Jackie” and “Neruda,” directed the film from a script by Steven Knight.
Neon and Topic Studios are releasing “Spencer” in theaters on Nov. 5. Check out the new trailer above.
