Hyde Park on Hudson isn’t a title which will mean much to you if you don’t know much of American history (like I did). The title references the house president Roosevelt had near New York. It was a place he stayed regularly if he wasn’t in Washington. The movie is set just before Hitler started his war in Europe. The English see the threat and the king decides to come to Hyde Park to get support from Roosevelt. The movie tries to depict the historic characters as normal people, including their flaws, but does the movie manage to do that?
Daisy (Laura Linney) is a distant cousin of the president, who has been invited to meet him. They get to know each other better and become lovers. She’s invited to visit Hyde Park, where he meets the wife and mother of the president. She finds out a lot about everything that is going on behind the scenes. When the king is visiting everything needs to be prepared to perfection, but not everyone agrees on what that means. When they finally arrive there is an awkward atmosphere. As a viewer you see how the king and queen talk against each other about the Americans when they are alone and it remains to be seen if the situation they are in can be turned into a succesful visit.
Although the film manages to convincingly portray the time period and Bill Murray shows that he can breathe life into his role of Roosevelt, I felt the movie lacked focus. Initially it seems to be about a love affair, but once the royal family arrives it seems to be about them and the squabbling that goes on between everyone. Something which should be a depiction of a historic event quickly turns into a slow and boring movie where it seems that the most important question is whether or not the king should eat a hotdog. The love story returns towards the end, but by that time you will have lost interest in it. Unfortunately Hyde Park on Hudson doesn’t offer the fascinating story you’d be expecting. The movie has too little emotion and at no point during the film do you get the feeling you really get to know the characters.
I thought this film was a bit of a mess to be honest and didn’t really know what it wanted to be. At parts it wanted to be a drama and others a comedy; it really lacked focus, as you say. Also, without wanting to sound like a pompous Brit, I thought it painted a very negative view of the English, pretty much mocking us at every turn and putting America on a pedestal we always look up to.
Exactly, it was all over the place. I agree that the British were shown very mockingly..they tried to make them comedic, but like you say when a movie tries to be many things and it doesn’t work that means you can get that feeling from it.
Nice review. This was a pretty big disappointment, and the film was actually surprisingly crude. Still, Bill Murray did a good job.
Yeah, I feel the same.
It’s such a bummer to see all the negative reviews. I really like the cast and the trailer actually looked pretty good. I might still give it a rent though.
I wished it was better, but was utterly disappointed by it. Hope you’ll get more out of it than I did.
This has gotten mixed reviews with very few people giving it high marks. It certainly doesn’t seem like a movie I’ll be watching even if it stars the always reliable Bill Murray.
Understandable, don’t think you’ll miss much by skipping it.
Thanks,James