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'Dire' Diana slated by the critics
One-star reviews befall new Naomi Watts biopic.
'Diana', the biopic about the final years of the Princess of Wales, has been slated by the critics following its premiere in London last night.
Though hardly a surprise – the trailer was an early indication of the mawkish tone of the movie – it was hoped that director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who helmed the spectacular Hitler biopic 'Downfall', may have pulled something out of the bag.
But it appears not...
[Watts worried about royal reaction]
Some have found sympathy with Naomi Watts, who took on the difficult role of Diana, The Times saying that she is 'doing her level best with a squirmingly embarrassing script', but 'this film is still atrocious and intrusive'.
The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw wrote: “I hesitate to use the term 'car crash cinema'. But the awful truth is that, 16 years after that terrible day in 1997, she has died another awful death.
“This is due to an excruciatingly well-intentioned, reverential and sentimental biopic about her troubled final years, laced with bizarre cardboard dialogue - a tabloid fantasy of how famous and important people speak in private.”
[Watts 'fixated' by Princess Diana interview]
The Daily Mirror also afforded the film a single star, David Edwards writing that 'The Queen of Hearts has been recast as a sad-sack singleton that even Bridget Jones would cross the street to avoid'.
The Daily Telegraph upped the star count to two out of five, but the review scarcely read that way.
“It’s hardly fascinating,” says David Gritten. “It doesn’t offer new facts about the Princess’s life. And it certainly doesn’t explain her complexity or contradictions.
“That would take a different, better film altogether.”
Perhaps Watts could sense the negativity before it even emerged – or perhaps she's seen the finished product – walking out of an interview with Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode earlier this week while promoting the movie.
Starring Watts alongside 'Lost' star Naveen Andrews, who plays the heart surgeon Hasnat Khan that Diana fell in love with, it's out in cinemas on September 20.
