海角大神

鈥淪pencer,鈥� starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, is the latest in a seemingly unending stream of movies and TV and Broadway shows about the blighted royal. Coming after, most recently, 鈥淒iana: The Musical,鈥� 鈥淭he Crown,鈥� and CNN鈥檚 six-part docuseries 鈥淒iana,鈥� is there anything left to explore? More to the point, is it morally justifiable to keep digging away at her life?

In an attempt to quell these qualms and demonstrate that their movie is less biopic than fantasia, Chilean director Pablo Larra铆n (who also helmed 2016鈥檚 鈥淛ackie鈥�) and screenwriter Steven Knight open the film with a title: 鈥淎 Fable From a True Tragedy.鈥� But their method here is not simply fanciful; it鈥檚 intended to impart a more profound view of Diana than a mere biographical rendering ever could.聽

The risk here is that, in employing her life as a fable, with made-up incidents and dream sequences, the result will end up resembling high-art exploitation. And parts of 鈥淪pencer鈥� do indeed veer dangerously close to that terrain. But I never felt that the filmmakers were posthumously trying to cash in on Diana鈥檚 celebrity. The fable-making, at least, is done with genuine commitment. Most of all, Stewart鈥檚 fierce performance roots it all in reality.聽

Stewart has made a lot of middling movies, but it should come as no surprise to anyone who has seen her in 鈥淐louds of Sils Maria鈥� or 鈥淧ersonal Shopper鈥� that she can be an extraordinarily subtle and resourceful actor. 鈥淪pencer鈥� takes place in 1991 over three days, beginning on Christmas Eve, at Queen Elizabeth鈥檚 palatial Sandringham estate in Norfolk 鈥� and Diana is in almost every scene. She is constantly surrounded, along with her two children, William (Jack Nielen) and Harry (Freddie Spry), by an assortment of royals, servants, dressers, and chefs. (Timothy Spall and Sally Hawkins are standout performers here.) Nevertheless, Diana is isolated by the protocols of her station. She seems most alone when she is with other people. Her flintiness is her way of armoring herself against their incursions.聽

To the film鈥檚 credit, Diana鈥檚 gilded-prison desperation is not displayed as a martyrdom for which she is blameless. This royal can be a royal pain, and Stewart doesn鈥檛 flinch from the more unsavory aspects of Diana鈥檚 woe. The Princess of Wales grew up in an estate, now condemned, a few fields over from the queen鈥檚, and when she ditches a Christmas dinner to explore its ramshackle remains, you may find yourself commiserating less with her than with the stood-up royals. (It doesn鈥檛 help that Larra铆n films her exploration in a jangly style that breaks rather than enhances the movie鈥檚 mellifluous mood.)聽

But despite Diana鈥檚 hair-trigger heedlessness, the movie finally imparts to her a kind of heroism. It鈥檚 the valor of a mother who didn鈥檛 want her sons to become like those she abhorred. The most moving scenes in 鈥淪pencer鈥� are those in which she tries to protect them. The film鈥檚 fairy-tale ending is thus doubly entrancing 鈥� and saddening.

Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淪pencer鈥� is rated R for some language.聽