Review of Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) by Andy S — 24 Feb 2013

Lame!

**.

At one point early on in making a film, one must ask him- or herself, "is this a story worth telling?" The answer with "Hyde Park on Hudson" is a resounding "no." There's nothing to take from this movie but feeling cold. You can't tell what type of film this is trying to be: a historical drama, a romance, or a character piece. The results range from terrible to underdeveloped. Thus, despite some of the cast and crew actually trying their best, the film was just unnecessary from the start.

There's one point in the movie where Laura Linney's character Daisy falls flat on her face. That describes "Hyde Park" perfectly. Despite the movie's efforts, it just can't keep up. It falls far behind the seriousness and heartwarming "The King's Speech." And it can't ever tell the story it wants to tell. Plus, it's kind of gross. The heroes become seriously flawed and then become heroes again. And this is tried to being passed off as being "human." That's why it's lame. It can't keep up and it shouldn't have been made in the first place.

All those negative things aside, the actors do their best at least. Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams were surprisingly the standouts here as the Queen and First Lady, respectively. If only they were given better source material. When your climax is "will he or won't he eat a hot dog," you have a major problem with your script.