Within hours of the Princess Diana biopic premier screening, film critics have torn it apart with a string of merciless reviews.

Lead actress Naomi Watts has defended her role as the ‘People’s Princess’ who died, tragically, in a car crash 16 years ago, saying that she “found herself constantly asking for (Diana’s) permission to carry on” in the film and “felt like there was one particular moment when [she] felt her permission was granted.”

The critics praised Watts for doing “her level best with a squirmingly embarrassing script” but concluded that the film was still “atrocious and intrusive”. Other critics weren’t as kind,

Poor Princess Diana,

Wrote Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw,

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.

What’s the point of Diana?

Reviewer David Gritten asked rhetorically.

When Watts was asked if she felt the film would offend Diana’s sons, she told BBC TV: “Hopefully if they get to see the film, they will feel that we have done it in a respectful and sensitive way.”

We try to honour the depiction of her character in the best possible way.

Based on Kate Snell’s 2001 book Diana: Her Last Love, the film suggests that Diana started dating Dodi Fayed, whom many friends of the princess say was her real love, to make Khan jealous. The film has been largely ignored by the royal family.

[Source : nineMSN, Yahoo!, iol]