THE casting, with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, is brilliant, and the ending, in a top-down convertible, is sublime. So why is the rest of Pablo Larraín’s “Spencer” such a hollow exercise in high camp?
It wasn’t so long ago that the Chilean director Larraín crafted another meditation of mythmaking in the similarly conceptual, “Jackie.” It, too, was a elegantly stylish movie with a captivating leading performance in Natalie Portman as Jaqueline Kennedy and a piercing, discordant score by Mica Levi. Here, again, is an empathetic but arch character study (this time the jazzy score is by Jonny Greenwood) about persona and personhood in a 20th century cauldron of fame and tragedy.
“Jackie” had the prickly edges of a psychological thriller and draped itself in the memories of a grieving past. “Spencer,” which opens in theaters Friday, is more like a ghost story — a dreamy, luxe version of “The
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