Critics savage film of Diana’s final years following premiere

Naomi Watts, who plays the title role of Diana in the film of the same name about the final years of the princess’s life, got a warm reception as she looked suitably regal in a floor-length white gown and diamonds while waving at fans.

Critics gave just about everything to do with the film a much colder reception.

A review in The Times, which gave the film one star out of five, praised Watts for “doing her level best with a squirmingly embarrassing script” but added that “this film is still atrocious and intrusive”.

It said the film “bumps up romance and trivia at the expense of some serious comment about the Royal Family’s control of her access to her sons, who hardly feature, and Diana’s disturbed behaviour”.

The film, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, charts Diana’s romance with Dr Hasnat Khan, which ended shortly before her death alongside Dodi Fayed in a Paris car crash in 1997.

Critic for the Guardian Peter Bradshaw wrote “poor Princess Diana”.

He continued: “I hesitate to use the term ‘car crash cinema’. But the awful truth is that, 16 years after that terrible day in 1997, she has died another awful death.

“This is due to an excruciatingly well-intentioned, reverential and sentimental biopic about her troubled final years, laced with bizarre cardboard dialogue – a tabloid fantasy of how famous and important people speak in private.”

In his one-star review, Mirror critic David Edwards writes that it can “only be described as a fabulously awful film”.

The Yorkshire Post’s review of Diana will appear next Friday.