Diana the film.

                             Diana.  Film Review.

"Love is a garden. If you can't smell the fragrance, don't come into the garden of love. Somewhere beyond right and wrong there is a garden. I'll meet you there." Rumi.

Yet another film panned by the critics both sides of the Atlantic. Remember Grace starring Nicole Kidman? That was hammered too. Diana is biopic only in the sense that it covers some aspects of her final years from 1995-1997 particularly her relationship with the heart surgeon, Hasnat Khan and her humanitarian work.

Oliver Hirschbiegel of "Downfall" fame, an incredible film based on Hitler's last days, directed  Diana. Based on Kate Snell's 2001 book: Diana: Her Last Love. The script was written by Stephen Jeffreys. Naomi Watts played the title role alongside the attractive Naveen William Sydney Andrews, a British Indian actor (Sayid Jarrah in the tv series Lost, Kip in The English Patient and Sanjay in the 2002 remake of Rollerball). This role suited him well and I loved his philosophical touch, quoting from Rumi a 13C revered Persian poet. You'll see some good on-screen chemistry between the two and amusing moments of childish pranks when they can escape the paparazzi  (which is not often).

The film begins and ends in the same way. It shows Diana with Dodi Fayed in a Parisian hotel in the lift with the press amassing outside. Whilst walking down the corridor, Diana is tense. She stops at one point and looks over her shoulder in anticipation of something. But what is it? The same sequence is replayed at the end and yes, it makes sense. That important phone call that she is waiting for. However, Diana has left her phone  in her bathroom and it seems that she has given up on the chance of a reconciliation.

The film then takes us back two years and we are reminded of her separation from Prince Charles. Her meeting with the surgeon is by chance and she is hooked from the start with this self-assured man, determined to save people's lives. "You reach a place inside of yourself where time has no meaning. You don't perform an operation, the operation performs you. And when it's over, reality is a bit flat."

 Surprisingly Diana seemed to be excited by the fact that Khan wasn't star-struck by the most famous woman in the world which we are reminded about far too many times! She finds it a novelty in the way he treats her-not as a Princess in awe like everyone else. Hasnat admits to following no-one hence the self-assured, confident man so different from the insecure Diana whose nightmare concerns recurrent bad dreams of falling with no-one there to catch her. She has therapy sessions and talks through her insecurities. She confides in Oonagh, her therapist that she sees herself as a little girl waiting on the doorstep for her mother to return which never seems to happen.

Naveen Andrews.

At the start of her relationship with Khan she is interviewed by Martin Bashir for the BBC over Charles' infidelity: "There were three of us in this marriage and so it was a bit crowded." The interview caused a rumpus with her staff and the Palace as you would expect. Patrick, her rock, tended his resignation. "I'd like to be queen of people's hearts. In people's hearts." She was asked if she thought she would ever become Queen: "I'm a non starter. I do things differently. I don't go by a rule book because I lead from the heart not from the head and albeit that's got me into trouble with my work but someone's got to go out there and love people and show it."

It was impossible for them to have a normal relationship without being constantly hounded by the press but they did try. Diana bought a dark hair-piece and borrowed her butler's car in exchange for her Audi. At one time she was hidden in the boot of the car. There seemed to be genuine love and affection with moments of happiness and longer stretches of frustration. "If I marry you I have to marry the whole world as well. We can't simply be a man and woman. When you fall in love, you just keep going despite the warning lights."

The inevitable break-up happened and Diana tried to manipulate the press over her alleged affair with Dodi to make Hasnat jealous. The truth? We don't know so blame the writer and director for being rather creative in assuming they knew what was going through Diana's mind and Hasnat's. This is where the critics went to town!

As well as the affair, we see Diana in an extraordinary good light with her humanitarian work, especially highlighting landmines and visiting victims, particularly the young children whose lives had been seriously blighted by the mines. In Huambo province, Angola, one young girl had her intestines blown out. For this work Diana was branded a loose canon as if she was aligning herself to Labour!

We know the ending but it is still a tragedy and seeing all those flowers paraded in front of her palace reminds us of how loved she was. Hasnat leaves a poignant message and walks away bereft and full of despair.

"Where you are, death will find you even if you are in towers built up strong and tall." Quran.
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Hirschbiegel has come bouncing back with "13 minutes" a companion piece to "Downfall" the drama about Hitler's last days. The new film covers the 8th November 1939, an attack on the Fuhrer's life. George Elser planted a bomb at the Munich bierkeller where Hitler was due to address a Nazi rally. The film retells the events leading up to the assassination attempt. 54 minutes and awarded 4 * by Matthew Bond from The Daily Mail.

REVIEW IT BY CAROL NAYLOR.

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