Predicting The Major 2022 Oscar Winners
4. Best Actress - Kirsten Stewart (Spencer)
Once again it appears your best bet to win at the Oscars is to play a real person, with eight out of 10 of the best actor/actress nominations going to biopics. By far the most interesting, though, is Kristen Stewart’s performance as Princess Diana in Pablo Larrain’s otherwise entirely overlooked Spencer.
The casting of Stewart raised a few eyebrows on announcement, but she does a superb job here. Rather than attempting to depict the life and times of the late Princess, Spencer is focussed entirely on Christmas 1991 as her marriage to Prince Charles comes irreparably unglued.
Stewart conveys everything about Diana, from her vulnerability to her ambition and growing maturity, with poise and grace. It’s a stately, quiet film, almost horror-like in its tension. Without any knowledge of the reality it’s clear that all’s not right in Diana’s relationship, and Stewart is often ghost-like as she drifts around Sandringham, a perennial outsider.
It’s a daring film about an evocative subject, and it’s Stewart’s performance, which is far more than a simple impression, around which the whole thing orbits.