Bill Murray As FDR The Best Part Of Hyde Park On Hudson
By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 7, 2012 5:20PM
When we first heard that Bill Murray was going to play Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it sounded like some kind of casting stunt. And perhaps it was. But we've always thought that he prefers "character actor" roles anyway, and in Hyde Park on Hudson Murray is actually pretty credible as FDR. He gets the voice—a sort of Harvard warble—just right. His body language, with the thrown-back head and the way he chomps down on his cigarette holder Burgess Meredith-style, really does create an indelible character. He also conveys the mixture of patrician breeding, effortless charm, and downright stubbornness that made him such a masterful politician (and so irresistible to women—more on that in a moment). Is it a historically accurate portrait? Hard to say. But Murray is fascinating to watch in the role, whether he's zooming around the countryside in his specially-modified convertible or fixing a large batch of martinis for his guests.
Unfortunately he's stuck at the center of a distressingly pedestrian historical drama that might as well be called The King's Speech II: Bertie Does America. The meat of the plot is the 1939 Royal Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to FDR's "summer White House" in Hyde Park, New York. It was the first time a reigning English monarch had ever set foot in the United States. As the movie makes clear, the royals had a good reason to cross the ocean: the outbreak of World War II was imminent, making it crucial for Britain to find a way to coax the US out of its declared neutrality.
The segment of the movie concerned with the visit doesn't exactly feel fresh but at least it's entertaining in a Downton Abbey kind of way. We get to watch a small army of servants scurry around the house while the members of the upper crust find ways to tactfully navigate around various sleights, real or imagined, climaxing in a sort of "hot dog summit." Bustling around with limitless energy, the two strong Roosevelt women, FDR's mother (Elizabeth Wilson) and endearingly horsey-faced Eleanor (Olivia Williams), are much more interesting than the monarchs themselves. The movie is smart enough to give them some choice moments.
If only there were more of them. Hyde Park on Hudson makes a big mistake by spending gobs of screen time detailing FDR's affair with a distant cousin named Daisy, played by Laura Linney. She's always a fine actress, but here she's saddled with a sorely underwritten part; Daisy is basically a passive drip who mopes around except when she's near the president. Even worse, she's required to deliver large, frequent chunks of expository voiceover, a device so hoary it was a cliché back when the actual FDR was in office. Besides which, the actual affair is rather uninteresting. Daisy's "shocking" revelation (not only has the president carried on numerous dalliances but good old Eleanor is "practical" about the whole thing) is a yawn. Director Roger Michell seems at a loss to create any kind of frisson at all, even during a grotesque scene where Daisy gives FDR a handjob.
Hyde Park on Hudson is certainly worth seeing for Murray's enjoyable performance; but considering what could have been made from this story, the movie ends up a real disappointment.
Directed by Roger Mitchell.
Written by Richard Nelson.
With Bill Murray, Laura Linney, Olivia Williams and Samuel West.
Running time 94 minutes
Rated R for adult themes, adult activity and hard language.
Opens today in theaters nationwide.