Diana: A movie worth watching!
If you loved the late Princess of Wales, you’ll want to watch Diana.
The hype around the movie overseas was huge so I couldn’t say no when I was invited to attend the premier at Ster Kinekor at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping.
It was the Girlfriends’ Getaway experience and my mum and I were game for that. We had lots of fun before the screening. There were relaxing messages on offer, cocktails, free skincare samples and some cool goodie bags. What a treat!
Naomi Watts is fascinating on screen. She’s one of those actresses I love to watch - no matter who she’s playing. If you don’t know who Watts is, think back to the 2002 horror film The Ring (the one where the girl crawls out of the TV) and The Impossible, the movie based on the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami.
If you’ve already read a scathing review of Diana, do yourself a favour and don’t take the critic’s word for it. If you haven’t, don’t read an analysis of the film just yet. You’ve got to watch it yourself and come up with your own conclusion.
Watts is stunning, captivating and gentle in her handling of the late Princess of Wales. Her portrayal of the woman dubbed ‘The People’s Princess’ is honest and respectful. Aside from bearing a striking resemblance to the former royal, Watts channeled Diana’s grace, poise, tenderness and love for people especially through her humanitarian work.
Her co-star Naveen Andrews, who you’ll remember from the TV series Lost plays Pakistan-born heart surgeon, Dr. Hasnat Khan, the man who captures Diana’s heart. The film, which is based on the book Diana: Her Last Love, is set after her divorce from Prince Charles and focuses on the final years of her life, before that tragic accident in Paris in 1997.
The story depicts Princess Diana’s romance with Khan, the man she is said to have described as, “Mr Wonderful.” In the film, we see how the two first met and their relationship before Dodi Fayed came into the picture.
Sitting in the cinema with ‘the girls’ I found it easy to embrace Diana’s story. For us, to some extent, it wasn’t about how she batted her lashes, how he shouldn’t have been standing like that or how tepid the script was. We wanted to be taken back in time, to remember the most famous woman in the world. The woman we looked up to, that marvelous inspiration to people across the globe and who went from being the ex-wife of Prince Charles to carving her own identity.
There were two proudly South African moments. I was delighted to see the gorgeous Leeanda Reddy alongside Watts. Princess Diana also chats to pioneering heart surgeon, Christiaan Barnard briefly. The late doctor said in one of his books that the life of the Princess of Wales should have been saved after the Paris car crash.
Diana opens in South Africa on 18 October. Watch the trailer below.
- Natarah Nadesan