Review: Kristen Stewart’s ‘Spencer’ continues the Diana-ssance. But don’t call it a biopic
“Spencer” unfolds over three chilly days at Sandringham, a sprawling manor in the Norfolk countryside. It begins on Christmas Eve, but the mood is far from celebratory. Heavy-duty vehicles roll along in grim procession, every tire just barely avoiding a pheasant lying dead in the road. (Consider it a mercy killing; the bird was reared for the upcoming Boxing Day hunt.) Armed soldiers march across the courtyard, bearing cargo in tightly sealed containers. Is it a cache of rifles? No, just fresh meat and vegetables for the feast, to be overseen by a battle-weary chef (Sean Harris) who urges his staff to work quietly: “They can hear you.”
“They,” of course, are the royal family, all of whom will arrive shortly, sans their most famous and famously troublesome member. In one of her latest breaches of protocol, Diana, Princess of Wales (a mesmerizing Kristen Stewart), has
