Review: Pablo Larrain's brilliant 'Spencer' unleashes a royally wonderful Kristen Stewart

With a stellar performance from Kristen Stewart, director Pablo Larraín’s supremely brilliant “Spencer” is an enlightening glimpse into the mind of Princess Diana that doubles as an effective horror film. Rooted in a holiday setting, it also splendidly captures moments of absolute joy and exuberance even amid a sad larger narrative.

Labeled “a fable from true tragedy,” the drama (★★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters now) is a psychological head trip and fictional imagining of Diana's (Stewart) time with the British royal family over three days around Christmas 1991, spent at the queen’s annual holiday destination, Sandringham House.

Diana has already had it with cold Prince Charles (a very punchable Jack Farthing) and a separation is around the corner, but the princess is haunted by her past and present as the toil and trouble of being part of the monarchy weighs on her heavily.

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As the film opens, she’s already going her own way: Diana zooms along alone in her sports car apart from the rest of the family – including sons Harry (Freddie Spry) and William (Jack Nielen) – and is late, having gotten lost and had to stop at a fish-and-chips shop for directions. Once she reaches the palatial estate, Diana is welcomed by having to get on a scale, a family tradition in which fun over the holidays is measured in extra pounds at the end – not great for those wrestling with an eating disorder like Diana.

From the command wardrobe changes to the queen (Stella Gonet) giving her stares at dinner to Charles mansplaining how there has to be two of her (“the real you and the one they take pictures of”), it all gets a little maddening for Diana. She has a staunch ally in royal dresser Maggie (a fabulous Sally Hawkins), though her helper is sent away by the powers that be, and Diana’s increasingly drawn to a neighboring farm where she spent time in her childhood, a scarecrow-dotted contrast to her current celebrity status.

“Spencer” is a sister film to Larrain’s fabulous “Jackie” (with Natalie Portman as a grieving Jackie Kennedy) in creating a surreal and fantastical environment around a real person. Diana sees visions of not only memories of herself, but also Anne Boleyn as the claustrophobia of her situation takes hold. She’s surrounded by shifting Kubrickian horrors – this Sandringham is about as creepy a joint as the Overlook in “The Shining” – and Larraín boldly shows its effects on her. One scene has her beautiful gown splayed across the floor gloriously as she rests her head on a toilet, and there are a couple outstanding moments (like an unnerving bit with a bowl of soup) involving the pearls Charles gifted her – the same he also gave rumored mistress Camilla Parker Bowles.

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In a career-best turn (and sporting a serviceable English accent), Stewart wonderfully navigates Diana’s out-of-control spiral and crafts a deeply complex character it’s impossible not to love, whether or not you’re an Anglophile obsessed with royal goings-on. There’s paranoia, terror, anger and sadness in her rousing portrayal that arrives balanced by the love, happiness and protective nature she exudes when she’s around her boys. “I want to be your mum,” Diana tells them. “That’s my job.”

Larraín puts Diana through hell, but the best thing he does in “Spencer” is lift her back up. It’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.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Spencer' review: Kristen Stewart is a hauntingly great Princess Diana