"KEEP NOISE TO A MINIMUM. THEY CAN HEAR YOU."
Spencer is a disorienting film by design. It sets the viewer into a Christmas holiday at Sandringham Estate, then throws them off their axis. It melds past and present, biopic and psychological horror, claustrophobia and the English countryside's wide-open spaces. Kristen Stewart's Diana is the center of all, anchoring the audience as the film constantly pulls new tricks out of its bag. She handles the job brilliantly.
The film is nothing short of a masterpiece.
Spencer doesn't include Diana's death; it instead takes place almost six years prior. However, the viewing experience is much richer if one knows how Diana's story ultimately ends and Prince Harry's recent struggles against the constraints of the royal family.
Everything in the film portrays that sense of history; Claire Mathon's cinematography alternates between broad, sweeping tracking shots and invasive close-ups. It succeeds in making Diana, and everyone else in the story, look tiny compared to the monarchy's 1,000 years of history. Jonny Greenwood's score fills the viewer with dread from the first note before expanding, mixing jazz with classical influences.
The film intercuts between Diana's freedom and chafing against tradition with the almost mechanized creation of the various royal dinners. The ingredients are brought into the estate by one military brigade and prepared by another. There is to be no deviation from the list, no sound in the kitchen. Keep noise to a minimum. They can hear you.
We see paintings of Kings and Queens leer down on Diana and the royal family. Those such as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles are all too happy to join them. Past and present are the same, but the ghosts of the past tell Diana to move forward.
Spencer mirrors Diana's mental state perfectly; people change from shot to shot, Diana sees and becomes the ghosts of monarchs past. She even enters a haunted house. The influences from films like The Shining are apparent. Except this time, the Overlook doesn't win.
It's completely unexpected, but Pablo Larrain's near-perfect direction uses every element of the film to make it work.
Just because this is the way things are, doesn't mean this is the way they have to be.
Final score: 9.7/10