The marriage between Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at the Queen's estate. There's eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game, but this year, things will be profoundly different.... (Full plot summary below)
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The marriage between Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at the Queen's estate. There's eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game, but this year, things will be profoundly different.
Leave your thoughts about Spencer.
| The GuardianXan BrooksKristen Stewart proves entirely compelling in the title role. She gives an awkward and mannered performance as Diana, and this is entirely as it should be when one considers that Diana gave an awkward and mannered performance herself, garnishing her inbred posh hauteur with studied coquettish asides. |
| The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeKristen Stewart is inspired casting as a woman on the brink of escape from a superficially comfortable prison. Who better to play a person remembered for her perceived shyness than the current maestro of hooded introspection? |
| The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe 31-year-old Stewart – who will be instantly and justifiably awards-tipped for this – navigates this perilous terrain with total mastery, getting the voice and mannerisms just right but vamping everything up just a notch, in order to better lean into the film’s melodramatic, paranoiac and absurdist swerves. |
| The PlaylistJessica KiangAll the right people are going to hate Spencer. That’s just how good it is. |
| USA TodayBrian TruittIt’s a ghost story but also an underdog’s story, a fighter’s story, a mother’s story and, thanks to an Oscar-ready Stewart at the absolute top of her game, one of the very best movies you’ll see this year. |
| PolygonRobert DanielsSpencer is an act of psychological horror, a kind of ghost story, and a survivalist picture carried by an uncannily immersive Kristen Stewart, in the best performance of her career. |
| VarietyOwen GleibermanSpencer is an intimate speculative drama that stays as close as it can to everything we know about Diana. At the same time, the movie is infused with a poetic extravagance. |
| Movie NationRoger MooreIf I’ve seen a better performance in recent years than Stewart’s in this “fable from a true tragedy,” I can’t remember it. She’s stunning. |
| Entertainment WeeklyMary SollosiFor all of Larraín's artistry, Spencer would crumble in the hands of the wrong actress, and Stewart gives one of the best performances of her career so far as this highly subjective version of Diana. |
| Original-CinJim SlotekThe largely interior cinematography by Claire Mathon is stark, cold and beautiful, backed by a soundtrack that ranges from funereal chamber music to discordant jazz-noise meant to inspire dread. If that sounds uncomfortable, well, that’s the point of being her. |
