Hyde Park on Hudson by Focus Features

Description

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, incarnated in the person of Bill Murray, is spending another summer at Hyde Park in upper New York State. Distant cousin and near neighbor Daisy (Laura Linney) is summoned to the president's house to–well, we're not sure at first, except to keep FDR company in some vague way, maybe take his mind off the worries of global statesmanship. This sounds innocuous, or maybe it doesn't, especially as we become aware that Franklin is a man who enjoys showing his stamp collection to women other than his wife Eleanor (the excellent Olivia Williams). If you know what we mean. (Daisy was a real person, who left behind a batch of diaries and letters describing her closeness to FDR after she died in 1991.) Hyde Park on Hudson takes an odd tone toward this situation, which unfolds against a visit to Hyde Park from the British royal couple, George VI and Elizabeth (Samuel West and Olivia Colman). It's whimsical, for sure, but with a slightly seamy undertone as regards the prez and his receptiveness to sexual attention. Meanwhile, Murray's jovial presence doesn't really suggest the Roosevelt whose political savvy would shape the world, with the exception of one charming wee-hours sequence between king and president during which the two men share a few drinks and some mutual sounding-out. The movie's an odd sort of non-event, even if the circumstances play out on a very important stage. –Robert Horton