In the new movie “Spencer,” Kristen Stewart’s Princess Diana muses about her legacy: “I’ve been imagining how they’ll write about me in a thousand years,” she says. “If I do ever become Queen, what will I be? Insane?”
Released on Friday, the film, which calls itself more of a fable than biopic, takes place over Christmas 1991 at the Sandringham Estate, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s country homes. Director Pablo Larraín depicts the Princess of Wales slowly unraveling: throwing up after meals; pinching the skin on her arm with a pair of wire cutters until she bleeds; standing at the top of a flight of stairs ready to jump before the ghost of Anne Boleyn appears to stop her.
The movie, which Wall Street Journal critic Joe Morgenstern describes as “gothic horror,” arrives during a turbulent year for Britain’s royal family. In March, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle accused the royal family of racism in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, which the family subsequently denied. Prince Philip died the following month at age 99; Prince Andrew is being sued for sexual abuse by an accuser of Jeffrey Epstein. Prince Andrew has denied the allegations.
