Tag: Diana

Film Review: “Spencer”

No fairy tale: Larraín’s take on Diana falls flat

Kristen Stewart is Princess Diana in SPENCER.

Given the excess of coverage and plethora of media portrayals of Diana, the late Princess of Wales, that Chilean director Pablo Larraín would choose her as the subject of his new film feels somewhat odd. Do we really need another look at Diana and the royal family and all their dysfunction? If you’re a fan of The Crown, you may already have had your fill, but if you’re still curious for even more on the inner workings of the Windsors and Diana’s psyche, then Larraín’s Spencer may be for you.

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Film Review: Diana

Diana loves Hasnat, and we don’t care

Diana just wants to lay around with her hunky heart surgeon b.f. in Oliver Hirschbiegel's Diana
Diana just wants to lie around with her hunky heart surgeon b.f. in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Diana.

German director Oliver Hirschbiegel has made a puzzling contribution to the oeuvre of films about Diana, the late Princess of Wales. His new film, simply titled Diana, is very narrowly focused. Set during the last two years of Diana’s life, the picture highlights Diana’s (Naomi Watts) relationship with a London-based Pakistani heart surgeon, Dr. Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews). Hirschbiegel directed 2004’s critically acclaimed Downfall, so this misstep is both surprising and disappointing. The picture plays like a made-for-TV movie (appropriate perhaps for Lifetime), and does nothing to make the viewer remember Diana with any fondness or respect. Continue reading “Film Review: Diana”