Hulu Views: Spencer

 Most people who are scratching their heads about Kristen Stewart's Oscar nomination probably haven't seen the movie “Spencer” in which she embodies the spirit of Princess Diana.

The film, which tells us it's “A fable from a true tragedy,” is a fictionalized account of the three-day Christmas holiday at Sandringham during which Diana realizes she can't stay married to Charles and keep her sanity.

It features several dream/fantasy/hallucination sequences, including a few with Anne Boleyn, with whom Diana begins to identify. Another is when Diana is forced to wear the pearls Charles gave her for Christmas, knowing that he gave Camilla Parker Bowles the same necklace. At dinner, with the royal family staring at her, she pulls the necklace off and the pearls fall onto the table and into her soup. She spoons them up and crunches them. Weird, but an understandable analogy knowing what we know now about what she went through during that time.

The film focuses quite a bit on her battle with bulimia, and also the various ways in which the royal family tried to control her, including sending her dresser and only confidante away. It also shows the relationship she had with William and Harry and how she tried to do “normal” things with and for them.

Stewart does a masterful job of depicting the myriad facets of Diana, especially the feeling she has of being trapped and believing there's no way out.