Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
During the last two years of her life, Princess Diana campaigns against the use of land mines and has a secret love affair with a Pakistani heart surgeon.
Diana (2013) is a largely pedestrian biopic that reduces a complex, iconic figure to a formulaic romance narrative. The love affair with Hasnat Khan is depicted with little dramatic tension or depth, and the screenplay fails to capture Diana's genuine charisma or political significance. Naomi Watts gives an earnest but ultimately unconvincing performance, hampered by thin material and awkward mannerisms that feel imitative rather than transformative. The cinematography is competent but unremarkable, offering little visual distinction beyond glossy period dressing. As a biopic of one of the most documented figures of the 20th century, it adds virtually nothing new in perspective or insight, retreading familiar ground in a by-the-numbers fashion. The ending, constrained by real-world events, lacks emotional resonance due to the film's failure to adequately build investment in its characters throughout.