With so much already written about Princess Diana, both during her lifetime and after her death, director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Oscar nominated for Hitler portrait Downfall) struggles to add anything new or insightful here. He also uses kid gloves to handle the most controversial period of her life - the two years leading up to 1997's fatal car crash in Paris. However, it's Naomi Watts who takes the biggest gamble here, by playing "the most famous woman in the world" - and it's a losing bet. Her Diana is a bundle of mannerisms, begging our sympathy with fluttering eyelashes and using the same winsome tactics to woo Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan (portrayed as almost saint-like by Naveen Andrews). Essentially, this is their love story, but facts are few and far between in an account chiefly set behind closed doors, with scenes that might have been cribbed from Dynasty. Evidently, Hirschbiegel and Watts are wary of probing too deeply into the mindset of the woman who aspired to be "a Queen of people's hearts", making the end result pure fluff.
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