Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) is terribly lost. Putting along rolling hills under the glowering gray English skies in her Porsche, she can’t find her way to the royal Sandringham House, where she is deigned to join the Royal Family for Christmas. But her being off-course runs much deeper. Diana’s disorientation in the very town she grew up in – in the shadow of the aforementioned seat of royalty no less – speaks to a growing sense of being out of place. Following the infidelity of her husband Prince Charles (Jack Farthing), Diana is nonetheless expected to play the part of dutiful wife but it’s a role she simply cannot swallow.

Beautifully directed by Pablo Larraín (Jackie) and working off a script from Steven Knight (Locke), Spencer feels like the fist Oscar heavy of 2021 thus far. As if made for royalty, every little detail feels so perfectly refined; artful and intentional and precise. From Jacqueline Durran’s (Little Women, Beauty and the Beast) luscious costumes – which become Diana’s only avenue for subtle rebellion; to tempting platters of foods – marmalades and coddled eggs, soufflés, puddings, biscuits and stuffed pheasant; to the towering central performance from Kristen Stewart, Spencer is a moody and artful dramatic “fable” from a director working at the peak of his talents.

Dealing in the claustrophobia of royalty, Larraín crafts Spencer as a suffocating chamber-piece; a haunted house movie where our hero is tormented by the spirit of tradition. When Diana finally arrives at Sandringham House, greeted with exasperation by royal snitch Major Alistar Gregory (Timothy Spall, masterfully unlikeable here), she is told that she must weigh herself. Tradition dictates that all guests must gain three pounds by the end of the Christmas festivities so as to prove their merriment and overindulgence. “It’s all for a bit of fun,” Diana is stiffly told. No fun is detected.

From our very first glimpse of Diana, we see a girl who’s no longer in Kansas. The sheen of being a princess has long worn off to reveal an unwelcome reality. She’s surrounded by an army of stiff upper lips and the crushing weight of expectations. Though wronged by her husband, Diana is the one meant to keep quiet and keep up niceties. To bury her emotional turmoil and keep away from the prying eyes of the press. Thrust into a land beseeched by dangers with an omnipotent ruler pulling strings from behind curtains, Diana struggles to keep the withering remnants of her mental and emotional health intact but sees daggers everywhere. Her only trusted friend Maggie (Sally Hawkins) is sent away in a move that’s meant to be purely punitive.

Interfamilial politics infect every room in the Sandringham House, Larraín keeping tensions high by leaning into the paranoia of this most unpleasant holiday gathering. Alliances are uneasy and spies solider the halls. For Diana, who is said to be cracking up, no one can be trusted. The Royal family seems out to prove her unreliable, unstable, while the paparazzi lurk to spotlight the slightest chink in her armor. In the kitchen lorded over by the kindly head chef Darren (Sean Harris), a sign warns “Keep noise to a minimum, they can hear you” and this applies doubly to Diana.

Stewart handles the challenges of a character forced to burry her struggles wonderfully. As Diana battles to temper her emotions and present a happy face to the public, all part of the “double life” expected of royalty, Stewart brings the interiority of the character to life. We experience the events of Spencer through Diana’s eyes, Larrain drifting in and out of subjective reality and this allows us to meet the character on her own terms. Occasionally shifting into Diana’s fantasies, we see flashes of rebellion that can only exist in whispers. Scenes shared with her children William (Jack Nielen) and Harry (Freddie Spry) show her truest self, particularly in a late night game of truth telling that proves especially emotionally revealing. Stewart absolutely shines here. It becomes increasingly clear that Diana’s only goal is to be an actual mother to her children and shield them from the oppression of tradition, royal song and dance be damned.

With both Jackie and Spencer, Larraín paints a very particular vision of famous women suffering. The enormity of expectation haunts both women, each unconventional in their respective roles, struggling to do right by themselves and the public. Here though, there’s a warmth that eluded Jackie, a real sense of life and joy, smushed and flattened though it may be at the moment. Composer Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead fame, who previously scored Phantom Thread with similar standout zeal, has created a score that rattles and shakes like Diana’s emotions. A mix of jazzy drums blend with reverb-heavy trumpet and moody cellos to create a major unseen character in the film. Anxiety-wracked, the score offers yet another reflection of Diana’s jittery interiority.

In Larraín’s estimation, Sandringham House is full of enormous, stately rooms brimming with priceless art and immeasurable history but devoid of warmth and light. A mirror of the Royal Family themselves. At one point, Diana’s curtains are sewn shut, ostensibly to prevent the press from photographing her, but it’s just another rack of bars imprisoning her to isolation. The Queen (Stella Gonet), who casts an icy pall over every room she steps into, functions as yet another oppressive character in the film and a hardhearted foil. But when Diana can finally let go, Greenwood’s score drops away to make way for Mike + The Mechanics cheesy pop ballad “All I Need is a Miracle” and Darren’s delicacies are traded for buckets of greasy KFC. A normal life may not be all it’s cracked up to be but for this version of Diana, it’s the tastiest delicacy on the planet.

CONCLUSION: Pablo Larraín and Kristen Stewart achieve wonders in the awards-destined Princess Diana biopic ‘Spencer’. A handsomely-mounted portrait of strained poise under royal expectations, the artful biographical drama boasts sumptuous production details, skillful direction, and a career-best turn from Stewart.