It seems that most of the world fell in love with the person they thought was Princess Diana. In public, she was dazzling, fun, compassionate, and good-hearted. She was young, full of spirit, beautiful, and shy. She wasn’t seeking notoriety, fame, or a Prince when she lived in an apartment on The Little Boltons Street in London. Diana was a simple, ordinary girl who grew up in a mansion as the daughter of an Earl. Her father was not a garage mechanic, but someone of substance. She had known privilege, but nothing like what she was to soon experience.

In Spencer, screenwriter Steven Knight has taken facts around the failing marriage  of Diana to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) and fashioned a sad story of what may have transpired between them during a Christmas holiday in 1991. The film, directed by the Peruvian artist Pablo Larrain (Jackie, 2016), is completely fictional, with some true facts mixed in to make it seem plausible.

Diana, who once said in her famous television interview, that there were “three of us in this marriage,” a sideways jibe at the fact that Camilla Parker Bowles (Emma Darwall-Smith) was Charles’s true love, and Diana was an impedance to his love affair.

The film, lushly photographed by the creative lenses of Claire Mathon’s camera, is nearly a travelogue of England’s beautiful Norfolk countryside and the location of Queen Elizabeth’s Sandringham estate. In fact, everything in the film is beautifully presented, including the interiors of the house with set decoration by Yesim Zolan, Production Design by Guy Hendrix Dyas, and smashing costumes by Jacqueline Durran. The makeup department is to be commended, especially Samuel James for wig design, Stacey Panepinto as Ms. Stewart’s makeup artist, and Wakana Yoshihara for makeup and hair design. Visually, it is a beautifully mounted film.

This part is the best thing Kristen Stewart has ever done as far as this critic remembers. Never a fan of hers, I have done a complete 180 and find that with some good direction and a meaty part, Ms. Stewart has become a fine actress. It is astounding how well she has captured Diana’s mannerisms, her tilted head, her shy looks, and her exuberance when happy. There is a delightful scene on Christmas Eve when she gives her two boys secret gifts. Oh, how she loved those boys! William (b.1982, played by Jack Nielen) and Harry (b.1984, played by Freddie Spry) have a loving time with their “mummy”. The boys are adorable child actors. Diana comes alive and happy only when she is with her sons.

The People’s Princess has become more popular than her husband Charles, and even eclipses the Queen (Stella Gonet) in tabloid coverage. But this does not make Diana happy as she verges on a mental breakdown from her failing marriage. We see up close the torment she goes through having to endure the restrictions of living in the Palace and adhering to strict Royal rules of etiquette. Actor Timothy Spall plays the Queen’s Equerry, a man whose stiff upper lip sees to it that Diana tows the line. Spall is quite good in this part and totally believable.

Screenwriter Knight has dramatized in his script the suggestion that Diana was near madness when she was suffering from bulimia attacks at the end of her marriage. It points out she was a bundle of nerves and felt abandoned by the Royal Family and received no support. The only person on her side, it seemed, was her dresser maid, Maggie (Sally Hawkins, in a sympathetic---and surprising lesbian part).

Spencer, a beautifully made film, gives a star-making part to Kristen Stewart and a possible Oscar® nomination, elevates Sally Hawkins into what may be a Best Supporting Actress role, and gives Timothy Spall a chance of garnering a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Go see it.

(Released by NEON and rated “R” for some language.)