Review of Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) by Jennifer H — 30 May 2013

Hyde Park on Hudson was not everything that we expect in a movie but I was satisfied. I can't say that I was thrilled to learn stories of FDR having multiple affairs while absent from the White House. Those affairs were the least interesting ingredient to the story but it took those affairs to get the main plot rolling. Honestly, the confident romancing of FDR and the shy innocence of his cousin was distracting and unnecessary. The negotiating and friendship pact between the US and Great Britain could have stand on its own. Maybe had the plot traveled further in time to the very moment when the US is called to march into war with Europe, the popularity of this film would have left it reigning in the box office.

It was so simple; the King and Queen of England arrive to America and are given a taste of the patriotic culture North America cultivates. Who would've thought that the monarchy could spend so much time worry over a hot dog and what to do when asked to eat one. There is hardly any character development which, surprisingly, I'm not opposed to. Hyde Park on Hudson put me at a point where I forgot the fictional and believed it to be documented; this film blurred the line between a story with a beginning, middle and end and a news report of the British visitation to America. When it ended so abruptly (I gawfed when the credits played after the picnic), I was upset because I wanted to know more about the visitation similar to when I read a gossip column and not every loose end has been tied. I was a young adult in 1930s America and I was eager to know how FDR convinces the Brits that America can be a powerful ally even when we don't display the same refinery. As every news report comes to an end too quickly, so did Hyde Park on Hudson. Could there have been some revisions? You bet, but I will stand by this film as an innovation of how an audience can perceive a film. I don't think that this was a waste of my time neither should you.