The film Spencer labels itself, “A fable from a true tragedy.” It focuses on Diana, Princess of Wales, during three days when the royal family gathers for the Christmas holidays in 1991 at the Queen’s private estate of Sandringham.
Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles is cracking under the pressure of time—which exposed how ill-suited they were for each other—as well as adultery and the constant grinding attention of the media and populus.
The film’s focus is Diana’s world view, dropping the viewer into her hallucinations and sudden mood swings, with a soundtrack of discordant music emphasizing the unsettled atmosphere at Sandringham.
I kept waiting for something deeper than repeated close-ups of her distressed face and clenched fists amid bouts of bulimia and the appearances of a ghostly Anne Boleyn, played by Amy Manson, who is an unsubtle warning of what could await Diana.
He’s supposedly the new equerry for the Queen Mother, then 91, yet is omnipresent at the Queen’s own home, including supervising dinners and security on the estate .
The scenes of just the two women—one an aristocrat searching for herself; the other a servant filled with quiet confidence and joie de vivre—are the highlights of the film.
Perhaps to keep audiences off balance, Spencer plunges into its fable without any setup, assuming audiences know the basics of the “true tragedy,” which for many comes from watching four seasons of yet another fictional spin on real life, The Crown, on Netflix.
The result, Diana: Her True Story—which revealed her eating disorders and suicide attempts as well as confirmed that Charles had returned to his old love, Camilla Parker Bowles—was a bomb lobbed directly at the heir to the throne.
And William and Harry appear isolated at Sandringham, deprived of the company of any other young people, such as their cousins, Peter and Zara Phillips , who would have been there.
Park House, the rambling mansion on the Sandringham estate where Diana spent her early childhood wasn’t an abandoned ruin—a symbol of her idealized past and destroyed present—but had in fact been transformed into a charitable hotel for disabled people.
After Park House, Diana and her family moved into their stately home, Althorp, which dates back to 1508 and rivals royal palaces and castles with its walls of Old Masters and corridors stuffed with treasures.
In reality, William has made no secret of his love of Sandringham: he lived full-time on the estate for several years while his family was young and returned to live there again during much of the pandemic.