Hyde Park on Hudson (2012): Dir: Roger Mitchell / Cast: Bill Murray, Laura Linney, Samuel West, Olivia Coleman, Olivia Williams: Amusing political comedy set in 1939 about the meeting of two high powers. It stars Bill Murray as President Franklyn D. Roosevelt whose battle with polio has him unable to use his legs yet he maintains his dignity. Laura Linney plays distant cousin Daisy who learns that she is amongst several mistresses in Roosevelt's service. Samuel West and Olivia Coleman enter as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in hopes of gaining assistance for the upcoming war. Director Roger Mitchell has had success with romantic comedies such as Notting Hill and Morning Glory. Here he plays a more political hand but the results are sometimes slow, and despite amusing comic moments the adultery theme is perhaps a little too applauded or accepted. Murray is terrific translating into a President who whisks women away into the country via motor vehicle. Linney is fine as Daisy who narrates and desires to confront Roosevelt with regards to the other women but then just accepts it as his behaviour. Her fleeing through the woods seems to be a disjointed thriller placement. West and Coleman provide great foils as royalty taken aback by the country housing and a picnic featuring hot dogs as the main course. Olivia Williams appears as Eleanor Roosevelt. Great looking comic period piece that features a President of down to earth means and an ability to win over any guests with his modern lifestyle and life lessons where no legs leaves plenty of gain. Score: 8 / 10

Hyde Park on Hudson attempts to tell two stories concerning Franklin Roosevelt's visits to Hyde Park, where he shared a house with his mother, and had a separate cottage set up for visits with lady friends, and where he had as overnight guests in 1939, England's King George and Elizabeth, the Queen Consort.Bill Murray does a fine job presenting a Roosevelt that was witty and clever, yet scheming and manipulative as well. Laura Linney as Daisy seems to be the real star, narrating and telling about her relationship with the President, who is a distant cousin. The film begins with her narrating how she was asked, out of the blue, to come see him—she lived nearby, and how he started showing her his stamp collection, then took her for car rides in his specially designed car that had hand controls for everything so FDR could drive himself.They roar through the countryside. We see flowers and hills and, with the title being Hyde Park on Hudson, we look in vain for the Hudson River. It isn't there because the entire movie was filmed in England. I learn from other IMDb sources that the Roosevelt homes portrayed look nothing like the real life buildings either. That's O.K., Bill Murray didn't look too much like FDR anyhow.After seeing a hint that Daisy's relationship was perhaps turning physical with the president, the storyline leaves this to focus on the visit, four years after Daisy started meeting with her cousin, of the royal couple of the United Kingdom.In real life, they met the president in Washington and journeyed with him to Hyde Park, where they stayed overnight and tried to get him to commit to helping Britain in the coming war. Of course, the president committed to nothing, and Europe was at war for well over 2 years before we joined. One wonders, had our presidential elections been in 1938 and 1942, if Roosevelt would have gotten us involved shortly after the 1939 invasion of Poland. His reelection of 1940 was surely the main reason why he wasn't about to get us into a war right before that happened.In the film, the royal couple provide many of the small laughs, as they discuss differences in American and English customs, particularly the planned menu of hot dogs at the picnic. Elizabeth seemed so aghast at this delicacy, you would think she believe they were actually made of dog meat. They see FDR with another of his mistresses, outside the house from their upstairs window, and they just smile and wave.At the "picnic" we see Murray carried across the grounds to his table, which is, more or less, on the porch, not the grass. My trouble here was that this was in full view of well over a hundred people at tables spread all across the lawn. I know he was carried to places at times, but my understanding was that whenever there were people around who weren't in his inner circle, he arranged to avoid having them see that he needed to be carried like a small boy.Because he had learned Daisy was offended at not being invited to the big dinner the night before, he made sure to invite her to sit right beside him at the picnic. The film even shows Daisy putting mustard on the king's hot dog. I have learned that in real life, she couldn't have put the mustard on for the king because she was sitting two tables away from them.The film definitely picked up when the royal guests arrive. Before that, we had the tedious scenes of FDR showing his stamps to Daisy and chatting about nothing as he drove her around. I thought the first 25 minutes or so were quite boring.But since the scenes with the royal couple were not at all close to reality, and nothing was really accomplished other than the vague renewal of friendship between the two nations, I cannot see why this film was made.From various sources, the portrayal of King George and Elizabeth was not very close to their personalities in any way. The king was just 13 years younger than our president, yet FDR kept treating him as though he were old enough to be his father. It seemed like a ploy to make it seem like it was our president whose wise counsel enabled King George to be bold enough to achieve all that he did in his reign as king.The entire Daisy story was an utter bore. Apparently the diaries she left behind, published as a book and studied by historians, do not claim any kind of sexual relationship with FDR, as is suggested by the film. Her character in the film is totally uninteresting. We learn nothing about her life away from her visits with the president, other than that she lives with an aunt and takes care of her. Her big dramatic scene comes when she learns that the president has, at least one, other mistress. We are given to feel sorry for her because she feels hurt to learn that the married man with whom she is having an affair, has another woman he's seeing? Critics claim the movie's two stories made it unfocused. I agree. We saw no political maneuvering of FDR, no dealing with his work while at Hyde Park. We got no glimpses of his plans for reelection, or what he thought needed to happen for us to become involved in the war. If we weren't to learn about real historical events, and weren't really seeing characters portrayed realistically, what was the point?

It's 1939 at a pivotal time of WWII. England is alone in the world confronting Hitler. They desperately need help from America, and the Royals arrive for a charm offensive. On their first stop, they visit FDR at his summer retreat in upstate NY.Bill Murray is FDR, Laura Linney is cousin Daisy, and the Royals are played by Samuel West and Olivia Colman. There is little tension in the main storyline of FDR and his affair. And there's really no mystery. If this was only about them, this would be a horribly boring movie.The most compelling part of the story is the Royal visit. They're funny but you can also feel the intense drama playing out. The desperation and the culture clash leads to some of the best moments of this movie. I wish that they had concentrated more on that instead. A presidential affair is just so much less compelling.

Although I am very interested in politics, I thought that perhaps this movie would be boring but it was nothing of the sort. It was more of a love story and didn't get into many political details, although there were some good scenes with FDR and family and the first visit of the Royals, Elizabeth and Bertie. Some comical scenes there as well.The gist of the story was about Roosevelt's fifth or sixth cousin and her intimate relationship with the president, which she managed to keep secret for quite some time. Fascinating about the old boys' network in those days – the way they protected presidents right through and including Kennedy but not up to Clinton as we well know.I'm sorry that the movie didn't delve more into the policy aspect of FDR's presidency, and his infidelity did make him look a bit like a character from Big Love and quite selfish. However, men of great power often have great appetites and more importantly, they are surrounded by fans who are willing to satisfy them.I liked the scenery and the acting was terrific. Laura Linney is good in everything and I tend not to think of Bill Murray as a serious actor because he has been in so many comedies but he was fabulous.