Yikes. Looks like we have our first real turkey of the fall season. After its world premiere in London last night, you can cross Diana off the Oscar list, along with any hope for its star, Naomi Watts. I thought it looked Lifetime, but these reviews are pretty savage.
"Poor Princess Diana. 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." (The Guardian)
"The major problem, predictably, comes with the dialogue, which involves characters telling each other things they already know. 'I am a heart surgeon!' declares heart surgeon Khan. On another occasion: 'You're the most famous woman in the world.' Yes, we get it." (The Telegraph)
"Despite a peroxide hair-job, she looks, sounds, and acts nothing like the Princess of Wales. Wesley Snipes in a blonde wig would be more convincing." (The Mirror)
"Led by a pair of flat performances and featuring some of the corniest dialogue you'll hear all year, 'Diana' is too incompetent even to qualify as hagiography, devoid of insight and- unforgivably- curiosity about its subject." (Digital Spy)
"There are a number of lines you never, ever want to hear Diana, Princess of Wales say, and they include: 'I love feeling your hand there,' and 'Yes, I've been a mad bitch.' Even when these lines are delivered by the fragrant Naomi Watts, doing her level best with a squirmingly embarrassing script, this film is still atrocious and intrusive." (The Times)
Here's the trailer again, in case you want to remind yourself how bad it looked. One thing I have to agree on- even with a prosthetic nose, this was horrible casting. Naomi Watts looks nothing like Princess Diana.
