Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 156
Fresh: 59 | Rotten: 97
Though bolstered by a thoroughly charming performance by Bill Murray in the central role, Hyde Park on Hudson is an FDR biopic that lets down both its audience and its subject.
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 24
Though bolstered by a thoroughly charming performance by Bill Murray in the central role, Hyde Park on Hudson is an FDR biopic that lets down both its audience and its subject.
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Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 7,884
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Movie Info
In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams) host the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York - the first-ever visit of a reigning English monarch to America. With Britain facing imminent war with Germany, the Royals are desperately looking to FDR for support. But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR's domestic
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Cast
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Bill Murray
Franklin D. Roosevelt -
Laura Linney
Daisy -
Samuel West
Bertie, The King -
Olivia Colman
The Queen -
Elizabeth Marvel
Missy -
Olivia Williams
Eleanor -
Elizabeth Wilson
Mrs. Roosevelt -
Eleanor Bron
Aunt, Daisy's Wife -
Nancy Baldwin
Mrs. Astor -
Tim Beckmann
President's Aide -
Guy Paul
President's Aide -
Eben Young
President's Aide -
Samantha Dakin
Mary the Maid -
Buffy Davis
Cook -
Morgan Deare
Plumber -
Tim Ahern
Hungry Driver -
Tommy Campbell
Hungry Driver -
Jeff Mash
Hungry Driver -
Kevin Millington
Hungry Driver -
Nell Mooney
Superstitious Maid -
Robert G. Slade
Waiter -
Jonathan Brewer
Ish-ti-opi -
Kumiko Konishi
Princess Te Ata -
Blake Ritson
Butler -
Parker Sawyers
Thomas -
James McNeill
Photographer -
British Imperial Military...
Brass Band -
Amersham Band
Brass Band
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Hyde Park on Hudson Trailer & Photos
All Critics (156) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (59) | Rotten (98) | DVD (1)
Somewhat uneven and ultimately underwhelming, but there's plenty to admire and enjoy here nonetheless.
Top CriticA languid, tedious effort that never bothers to get to the heart of its characters, the film is a shallow reading of a significant time told mostly from the viewpoint of a lifeless character.
It's never a bad movie, but it can't quite gel into a good one either.
Hyde Park on the Hudson' is a forgettable historical footnote.
Essentially, Hyde Park on Hudson is a Shakespearean revel.
Murray's spot-on portrayal of a man juggling myriad pressures and demands, from petty to momentous, marks one of the film's greatest strengths.
...you certainly could do worse than enjoy a fanciful little film about a gentle president, his supposedly homely lover and two twittish English people appalled by hot dogs. I just wish they'd gone ahead and changed the names.
It's been a long time since Lost in Translation (2003), which is the last time Bill Murray did anything of real note in a film. Here he partially redeems the latter phase of his film career playing pre-war US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Bill Murray may not be going for laughs as World War II-era President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but he sure gets them in this slice of historical fiction.
A delightful piece of historical speculation grounded in historical details and personal recollections that have continually been coming to light over the last seventy years ... Murray is terrific in the part - charming, at ease and cunning as a fox.
The issue of FDR's fidelity remains a thorny topic for traditionalists and historians, never mind the light, fluffy - and ultimately disposable - version of events.
There is nothing stirring or sufficiently humorous to engage us; the fact that a serving US President is having secret affairs no longer shocks
With the incongruous casting of Bill Murray as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nelson's screenplay concentrates on the personal, offering a somewhat voyeuristic view of the events leading up to the 1939 visit of King George
Even Murray, who never fails to be the most watchable actor in any film, can't prevent Hyde Park On Hudson from being too insipid.
It's not the strongest premise for a movie, though Hyde Park on Hudson somehow contrives to make it seem rather less than the sum of its parts.
Apparently Franklin Delano Roosevelt's polio paralysis didn't include everything below his waist. At least that's the impression left by Hyde Park on Hudson, which paints the president as a horn dog in chief... This isn't Lincoln, by a longshot.
When the central drama concerns whether the Royal Couple will eat hot dogs or not, you can tell it's too slender a premise to hang on a film on.
FDR's story is strikingly relevant to how Paralympians strive so hard today to correct our perception of 'disability'.
Tedious PBS middle-brow fare, though not without a few amusing moments in this mostly forgettable historical pic.
It's icky stuff, not helped by Murray giving perhaps the worst performance of his career. And I include Garfield 2.
The film's special success resides in the women's hairdos.
Perhaps Hyde Park on Hudson would have been more edifying if it hadn't been released in the wake of The King's Speech.
When the story's leading quartet have to negotiate embarrassing moments - a handjob for Roosevelt administered by Daisy in a bouncing car; eating a hotdog at a picnic for Bertie and Liz - it's Murray's FDR who is most at ease in the sticky situations.
Inoffensive and insubstantial.
It's a bit antimacassar and too reliant on superior production design and a syrupy score. But if you just watch the acting, it's enough.
The breezy, entertaining tone of this historical comedy-drama kind of undermines the fact that it centres on one of the most pivotal moments in US-British history.
Audience Reviews for Hyde Park on Hudson
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Daisy: That spring Franklin showed me a world I never knew existed.
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- Franklin D. Roosevelt: I thought I might have a swim. Come along?
Discussion Forum
Latest News on Hyde Park on Hudson
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December 7, 2012:
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Foreign Titles
- Hyde Park am Hudson (DE)
- Week-end Royal (FR)
Decent Film but don't expect alot! Hyde Park on Hudson is a film that wishes to be seriously esteemed and respected as a minor historical film account of a momentous occasion; but it never gives its audience a serious reason to do so. It isn't a bad movie, it just never becomes the good one that it wants to be. There are plenty of decent moments in Hyde Park on Hudson including Murray as FDR and some wonderful shots of beautiful country landscapes. The film looks nice and the period detail will win some over; but the film fails to ever make a connection with Daisy. As the central character, the audience is given no real reason to want to follow her ... why is she really even here? I appreciated the depictions of the King and Queen (this is the stuttering king Colin Firth won an Oscar for playing a few years ago and Olivia Colman is quite good as the uncomfortable queen) and their struggles with being in America such as their trying to fathom the "rage" about hot dogs. "Hyde Park on Hudson" is a pleasant film, but it presumes to be interesting on the basis that it depicts famous political figures and exposes a beloved president's unflattering personal life. Maybe that's an exaggerated assumption of the film's intent, but it doesn't tell a story of any kind as far as plot structure goes. It's a great advertisement for a film audiences would prefer to see about who FDR really was, but in and of itself, it fails to offer any acute insight.
In 1930s Hudson Valley, Margaret "Daisy" Suckley is reacquainted with her distant cousin, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to help him relax at his family estate. That aid soon develops into much more as they become lovers. That puts Daisy in a unique position as Roosevelt receives the King and Queen of Britain in 1939 for a visit. As the Royal couple copes with the President's oddly plebeian arrangements, Daisy learns that there is far more to Roosevelt's life than she realized. With the world about to be set ablaze by war, friendships are struck and perspectives are gained on that special weekend that would make all the difference with a great, but very human, president.