Spencer: Princess Diana Drowning in Despair (Theaters or Rental on Amazon Prime)

If you're depressed (secondary to COVID or other life stresses), just watch "Spencer" and you may reach for the Lithium because you will seem at least hypomanic by comparison to Princess Diana.  This movie is on many top-10 lists.  Kristen Stewart's performance as Princess Diana is being touted as an AAW one, but, whether she deserves it or not, one excellent performance isn't enough to make this picture a top-ten or even a top-twenty film. The movie takes place on a Christmas weekend, sometime in the early nineties, when Diana's marriage to Prince Charles has been irrevocably shattered.  The Royal family is gathering for the holiday at a castle near Diana's childhood home.  Diana decides to drive there by herself (roughing it in her Porche) and gets lost along the way (obviously a metaphor for her being adrift at this point in her life). Diana is especially incensed because Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) has a mistress (Camilla Parker-Bowles) and he gave Diana the same strand of pearls as he gave Camilla for a Christmas present.  Diana identifies with the tragic figure Ann Boleyn (Amy Manson), who was beheaded by her husband (King Henry VIII) so that he could marry his mistress.  Diana has no degrees of freedom at the castle (or anywhere else), since everything she says and does this weekend is being carefully monitored by Major Gregory (Timothy Spall). Diana's nearly unbearable inner turmoil is well conveyed by family situations at the castle, Diana's fantasies and dreams, and memories from her childhood.  The Writer (Steven Knight), the Director (Pablo Larrain), and Stewart reveal Diana's despair, anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and her feeling of being trapped in a gilded cage very well, but we get the point after 20 minutes.  Unfortunately, the rest of the film just "beats us over the head" with it.  The soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood, with its atonal violins, further accentuates Diana's misery – but it added to mine too!  Sometimes, I wanted to cover my ears, but then I would have missed the dialogue.  I was wishing that I could suffer the same fate as Ann Boleyn, which would have solved these two problems!  Diana must have vomited in the toilet bowl at least five times, and each one of these scenes made me queasy. If you are interested in Princess Diana, the film will intrigue you, but keep in mind that it's fiction and not necessarily an accurate portrayal of Diana's frame of mind at this time.  I thought Stewart did a fine job and I have no objection to her receiving an AA nomination, but I doubt that she will get my vote.