Review of Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) by Nick M — 02 Jun 2013

"Hyde Park on Hudson" really is two stories, neither of which shed much light on Franklin D. Roosevelt, a man much more interesting than this movie cares to talk about. Half the movie is deleted scenes from "The King's Speech" with actors who aren't quite Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter. The other half is the story of Daisy, Roosevelt's fifth cousin/mistress.

The film is mostly Daisy's story. The problem there is that Daisy is such a dull character. He relationship with FDR is dull, aside from an icky handjob in a field, the one moment that earned this film its R rating. Her motivations are dull. Worst of all, her omnipresent voice over narration that runs constantly throughout the course of the film is dull. It's as if somebody is narrating a not so interesting book as you drift to sleep. Really, it's just lazy writing.

The stuff with the king and queen of England seems never seems all that important. It's played a lot more jokey than it should be, and they never quite develop as characters. Also, like I alluded to before, it's really hard to watch their performances without comparing them to those in "The King's Speech". It frankly is just a much weaker, less interesting portray of stuttering King George.

As far as Bill Murray's portrayal of FDR, the one this I was really excited to see, it's...OK. I mean, it's fine. It's nothing spectacular. I don't know that Murray ever really captures FDR, most of the time just resorting to a slow whisper. He certainly tries, but it's just very inconsistent.

Really, as a whole, the acting in this film is just passable. The film, while it looks pretty, is tonally all over the place, never quite sure how sweet or sentimental or poignant or sad it really wants to be. It tries to hit every note, but it's all slightly off-key. You're not going to gain any new insight into FDR or life during the depression or the events leading up to the US's involvement in WWII. You're not going to get an interesting love story or really any interesting relationships between any characters. You're not going to get any award-caliber performances. I won't go as far as to say I hated this movie. I didn't. It's just a very bland film that isn't really with the 90 minutes you're going to put into it.