Roger Moore started his review by saying, “The
frenetic, comic and booze-assisted visit of King George and Queen (“Mum”)
Elizabeth to the private home of President Franklin Roosevelt on the eve of
World War II might make for a jaunty comedy of manners in the Downton Abbey
vein.”
Someday
The movie Roger Mitchell and writer Richard Nelson
chose to make about this comical and crucial point in the British-American “special
relationship” is more description, more disreputable than cheerful.
Even if “Hyde Park on Hudson” had been about the humorous,
smart and sympathetic womanizer FDR and his handling of the British, it might
have worked. However, Mitchell and Nelson, on whose play this is based, were
more interested in the base and somewhat under-sourced suggestions of an affair
revealed by the letters of Roosevelt intimate Margaret Suckley.
Most will say, “We’ve heard. He’s still considered one
of our greatest presidents. He’s still the face we see on every American dime.”
Laura Linney plays Daisy, a spinster fifth cousin of
the Roosevelts who is called from taking care of her aunt (Eleanor Bron) to the
president’s side during one of his visits to his mother’s (Elizabeth Wilson)
Hyde Park on the Hudson domain. He, played by Bill Murray, needs family,
friends, “lady-friends,” to take his mind off the stress of the work.
In their strange first meeting, she can’t make eye
contact, he can’t stop drinking martinis. And when he offers to let her see his
stamp collection, everything is set for that day when she can narrate, “I knew
that we were now not just fifth cousins, but very good friends.”
Yes, the movie says, it was intimate. And no, the
evidence is barely unclear.
Daisy narrates the famous story of the royal visit
made by the newly-crowned stutterer King George (Samuel West) and his grumpy, stuck-up
wife, the future “Queen Mum,” Elizabeth (Olivia Colman). Moore noted, “Unlike
the protective, adoring wife of “The King’s Speech,” this Elizabeth is testy,
forever comparing “Bertie” to the king who abdicated to be with the American
Wallis Simpson.”
Moore continued, “As Daisy sees them, the royals are
underwhelmed by Americans, especially the American upper class which can’t
reach that Downton Abbey level of service. And they’re worried, with war on the
horizon in Europe, desperate for America to be ready and willing to help,
despite every evidence (being ignored by everyday American folk) that nobody
over here is the least bit impressed by their pedigree or their plight.”
Franklin is always calling Daisy to him, making light
of the acts of his “crazy” wife Eleanor, played by Olivia Williams, wearing
prosthetic teeth.
Moore mentioned, “The movie hinges on Murray’s turn as
FDR, and frankly, he comes up wanting. He looks and sounds nothing like the
man, and barely makes an effort to rectify that. The famous
teeth-clinched-around-cigarette-holder smile is replaced by a creepy,
cadaverous upper-teeth-only grin that doesn’t work at all.”
The scenes saying president and king developing a bond
barely come off, but at least Murray’s enough of an old man to manage the jokes
well enough. Sometimes, underplaying has its limits.
Moore ended his review by saying, “But “Hyde Park
On-the-Hudson” is a frustrating comedy and a half-hearted expose, a “coming of
age” picture that suggests Daisy’s early naivete is replaced by something more
“sophisticated,” if not more cynical.”
To be completely honest, I would have loved to have
seen Bill Murray more on screen since I don’t think he was in it all the time.
However, this is an average comedy and I don’t know if this is for everyone. I
felt as though I had drifted off from looking at the film that I might have
missed something. Once again, I will leave this up to you guys if you want to
see this film or not. If you don’t see it, I don’t think you will be missing
anything.
Look out Friday when I end this year’s “Black History
Movie Month” with another biographical film that I think everyone will like.
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