Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Naomi Watts, Naveen Andrews, Geraldine James
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Extras: Cast Interviews
Oliver Hirschbiegel managed to give us quite the empathetic view of one of the world’s greatest villains, Adolf Hitler. So surely he would be able to give us a powerful and emotionally honest interpretation of the life of the much loved Princess Diana. Apparently not. Not only does he fail to capture a realistic interpretation of an icon’s life, he manages to come out the other end and supply us with one of the most unintentionally hilarious romantic comedies of last year.
DIANA tells the story of Princess Diana’s (Watts) relationship with everyday heart surgeon Hasnat Khan (Andrews). She’s the most famous woman in the world, and he’s a man whose career is everything and needs his complete attention. As you can imagine, the two find it difficult to overcome the constant intrusions of the press. Although this set-up sounds like a romantic comedy, I expected it to be handled with some sensitivity as well as balls of steel. The film paints Diana as a needy and selfish woman, akin to Disney Princess archetypes that even the House of Mouse have tried shedding with their recent film FROZEN. The film is trying to show that she was a normal human being, but her neediness and constant whinging seems detrimental to what the film wanted to achieve.
The script also hands out a number of clangers, such as Diana trying to spell out how good she is. Upon being asked to christen a nuclear submarine she responds by saying how she only wants to do good. A subtle look could have spelled out the irony without needless dialogue, and it becomes even more awkward in later scenes. However, subtlety is never this film’s strong point. Sometimes the camera cuts back to extras to show their awe, and they’re just a few hammers to the head shy of adding bright halos around the people’s princess. It becomes embarrassing when, in disguise, Princess Diana causes everyman on the street to stop and check her out. Pretty she may have been, but a stunner with a body that builders would drool over? Not exactly.
The fantasy extends throughout the entire script, where the infamous interview was cult like viewing in pubs around the country and police would ignore suspected bomb threats for a quick joke about Pakistani doctors weighing down the car. The entire production feels like a delusional fan of the late princess having free reign over her memory. Watts struggles to keep the accent and Andrews stumbles over awkward dialogue concerning the heart, because he’s a heart surgeon and they’re in love, get it? Entertaining for all the wrong reasons, it will more likely appeal to the cynical than to the saccharine devotees it was probably intended for.
[usr=2] DIANA is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 24th March.
