Spencer

A near 2 hours mood piece reflecting the frenzied, paranoid, mess, seemingly fractured mind of Princess Diana over those three days during Christmas at Sandringham estate in 1992. Kirsten Stewart was amazing. Together with director Pablo Larraín and writer Steven Knight, Stewart was lost in her portrayal of a princess that vacillated between fragile and on the verge of breaking apart, to strong and sure-footed of what she wants.

The film was undoubtedly excessively and somewhat self-possessed, but like what Larraín did with Natalie Portman in “Jackie”, this was a psychological profile of a famous female at a precarious point in their life as they navigated expectations both from themselves within and from the people - public and private, perceived and assumed - without.

In “Spencer”, dramatically and narratively, nothing much happened. It was a series of moments and vignettes that Larraín et al had crafted to highlight and heighten the inner workings of Diana’s mind and feelings.

And Stewart absolutely nailed it.

Stewart’s mannerisms and voice were similar to Diana, but what made the accolades well deserved was her full bodied immersion into the role. Stewart the rising star was gone, instead we are left with this complicated, fragile, unstable princess yet undeniably strong and loving mother. Her performance was nuanced at the quiet scenes but when the moment required more drama and more frenzied emotions she never overplayed it but raised the heightened display to meet Larraín’s equally discomforting camera work as assisted by cinematographer Claire Mathon.

Mathon’s lensing here was as stunning as her work on the gorgeous “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”. Just as apt was the brilliant, dissonant, disorientating score by Jonny Greenwood.

This film can be divisive because essentially it was a mood piece. More an art installation rather than a true cinematic narrative. Nonetheless, Stewart definitely deserved her Best Actress Oscar nomination and can truly be a dark horse to win the statue.