Spirited turn from Watts but it's still Hallmark material Diana- Trailer Celebrated and adored by millions, she was the Queen of people's hearts, yet the bittersweet story of the last man to truly capture hers has never been told. PT2M14S http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2spfz 620 349 August 28, 2013 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars 10 votes Biopic, Drama, Romance Oliver Hirschbiegel Screen writer Stephen Jeffreys Naomi Watts, Naveen Andrews, Douglas Hodge Yet to be classified Despite the critical mauling it has received in the UK, Oliver Hirschbiegel's sugar-soaked account of the forbidden romance between Diana Princess of Wales and Pakistani heart surgeon Dr Hasnat Khan plays out like an inoffensive telemovie for the Hallmark channel. Offering neither insight nor the faintest whiff of sensation, Hirschbiegel (of Downfall fame) treats the well-thumbed tale - loosely based on journalist Kate Snell's 2001 book Diana: Her Last Love - as something vaguely resembling a Greek tragedy. This is not about how or why Diana died, it is a tale of forbidden love, between the world's most famous woman and a most private man. Naomi Watts, affecting Diana's plummy-but-not-royal accent and posture well enough, apparently had to be cajoled into signing on for such a thankless role, and if true her reservations were well-founded. While no one criticised Helen Mirren for not looking much like the Queen in her Oscar-winning performance, Watts has been roundly condemned for bearing only a passing similarity to Diana. Naomi Watts and Naveen Andrews in a scene from the film Diana. Truth be told, she delivers a spirited turn, despite having some dreadful dialogue to work with. So too does her co-star, Lost's Naveen Andrews, who has the massive advantage of playing a far lesser-known figure in Khan. The characterisation of Diana is a little creaky, with her cast as a sweet and lonely figure, albeit a manipulative one capable of controlling the media at a moment's notice. The film is constrained by its deference to the royals, too. We don't see Prince Charles (or any other senior royal) at all. Princes William and Harry are briefly glimpsed, nothing more. Apart from a reconstruction of the CCTV footage of Diana and Dodi (here painted more as an acquaintance than a lover) leaving the Ritz, the film steers clear of Diana's death in a Paris tunnel in 1997. This is not about how or why Diana died, Hirschbiegel appears to be stressing. It is a tale of forbidden love, between the world's most famous woman and a most private man. Given that Diana remains a divisive figure for some, and these events are still relatively fresh and her end still clouded in controversy and conspiracy theories, something more is clearly needed. To offer a thoroughly soppy romance and little else feels naive and misguided, at best. Neither as dreadful as some would claim nor as poignant as it would like to be, Diana skirts the surface of a complex figure of recent history while trying to keep all parties at bay. For now, its simplistic mush will strike a chord with some. But given time, it will no doubt join the made-for-TV affairs that have preceded it, and be similarly quietly forgotten.