A Diana Docu-Drama
"Diana: Last Days of a Princess" is a docu-drama focussing mainly on the last two months of Princess Diana's life, her friendships, relationships, her feelings and her dealings with the press and members of the royal family.
I've mentioned it before but anyone who decides to make a movie about the British Royal family are either very brave or very foolish as they are so recognizable that more often than not the actors trying to play them don't even come close to looking or acting right. And that is especially the case when it comes to Princess Diana because there is not an actress on this planet who has her looks, mannerisms and her voice. It is one of the things you will need to try and put out of your mind whilst watching "Diana: Last Days of a Princess" as whilst Genevieve O'Reilly does a good job she is far from being perfect.
The things is that "Diana: Last Days of a Princess" is a very interesting idea for a movie as we have interviews with people who knew Diana and then parts of her final days being dramatized such as Mohamed Al Fayed inviting her to holiday on his yacht with his son Dodi leading to the press trying to get photos of them together. It certainly makes for a strange experience when you go from footage of the real Princess Diana to O'Reilly's characterisation of her and then interviews with people who knew her during those last two months. In fact I wouldn't even go as far to say that this is one of the most interesting Royal movies I have come across.
But there is one thing which I found hard to watch and that is the dramatization part feels heavily romanticized with scenes of Diana and Dodi dancing under the moonlight whilst Diana is often being shown as a bit like a petulant school girl when she didn't get her way. I know this was intended to entertain but it feels all a bit too Mills & Boon for my liking and is too much of a contrast with the documentary aspects of the movie.
What this all boils down to is that "Diana: Last Days of a Princess" is an interesting docu-drama which gets things right with the documentary side of things but is a little too over the top when it comes to the dramatization side of things.
