Ecosse Films, Le Pacte, Film i Väst,
Naomi Watts, Naveen Andrews, Cas Anvar, Douglas Hodge, Geraldine James, Charles Edwards, Juliet Stevenson, Daniel Pirrie
This docu-drama covers the last two years of Princess Diana’s (Naomi Watts) life when she divorced Prince Charles and fell in love with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews) which was not to be. She spent her final days in a relationship of sorts with Dody Fayed (Cas Anvar) until the fatal trip through Paris which led to the accident that caused her death. This biopic covers this particular period of her life which perhaps is less known than the rest. This is a dramatized discourse of her comings and goings, so I would imagine there is a fair amount of poetic license here, but the basic facts of the failure of her marriage and the distance and separation she felt, as well as real affection for Dr. Khan which may have been nearly as tragic as her death.
This is certainly not a perfect picture by any means, but Naomi Watts did a really good job playing the role. She did a good job convincing me she was Diana, and though not a look-alike, she still caught the mannerisms, accent, and characteristics well enough to make me forget it wasn’t the real Diana. Likewise, the story is fairly good, even if not perfect. There’s no way to satisfy everyone with a person of such recent history who is remembered by everyone. The movie does spend a lot of time with Dr. Khan and their relationship, but it had to be a really tragic time for her, as she was completely in love with man who just couldn’t deal with the notoriety of hanging with the former Princess of Wales. (I would a assume after her divorce she lost that title, although not knowledgeable of Royal Family affairs being a Yank, I couldn’t tell you for sure). Some critics feel that there was way too much time spent with the Khan relationship and way too little with Dodi Fayed. I agree Fayed was certainly far more colorful and as a result much more interesting. But it’s really interesting that the little I knew about Diana and her life, I wasn’t even aware of this, and I was confused for a long time until I figured out what was really happening. The focus on this film is more on that relationship, so whether or not we like it, it’s natural that more focus would be on this part of her life. But all in all, it was an informative and an interesting story. There’s no doubt that even decades after her death, she is still loved by people all over the world. There are other movies about her life, but this one is new, available for streaming all over the place and including NetFlix. It’s also very inexpensive to own, so if you are interested to learn more about the last years of Diana, rather than the gory details of her death, this is a pretty good drama. I enjoyed it, and though not blown away, I am glad I watched it.
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