Diana Review

by Helen Earnshaw | 18 September 2013

Diana

Starring: Naomi Watts, Naveen Andrews, Juliet Stevenson

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

Rating: 1/5

Diana has been one of the most talked about movies ever since it was announced that Diana Her Last Love by Kate Snell was going to be adapted for the big screen.

It has been over fifteen years since the Diana died and still the world is fascinated by her and her story. Naomi Watts takes on the role of the princess in a film that looks at the last two years of her life.

The movie follows her relationship with Doctor Hasnat Khan (Andrews), a man who saw beyond the exterior and seeing the vulnerable and complex woman underneath.

In a story that until now has remained untold, Diana introduces a time in the Princess’s life that was uniquely important in shaping her final years, fulfilling her search for true happiness and sealing her legacy.

The major problem with this movie is it is terribly bland; quite possibly because we all know how the story ends.

But this was a movie that had the opportunity to show off Diana’s contradictions and complexity; instead it just showed her as a petulant child when she didn’t get her own way.

Despite all of that Naomi Watts does deliver a fine performance and she really got the look and the mannerisms down to a fine art. The problem is she is given little in terms of depth of character or script to get her teeth into.

She really does do the very best with what she has given and copes with the pressure that must have come along with this part.

On top of all of that the movie just feels clunky as director

Oliver Hirschbiegel delivers one famous scene after another; landmines, the interview with Martin Bashir, without there ever being any real structure or flow to it.

Instead of really trying to look at the woman behind the headlines, we were instead given a portrait of Diana that we already know and recognise.

However, Diana is not as tasteless and controversial as some would have you believe, it is simply a film that has been delivered more like a soap opera than a biopic.

You can certainly see what Hirschbiegel and co were trying to do - to create an intimate and different portrayal of the most famous woman in history; sadly they haven’t achieved this.