HYDE PARK ON HUDSON REMINISCES
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was revered for his sublime confidence in people. In Hyde Park on Hudson, directed by Roger Michell, the private life of Roosevelt (played by Bill Murray) is the main focus. The person of most interest, however, is cousin Daisy (played by Laura Linney), who is summoned to amuse him one June day in 1939 and soon is beguiled by his charm. With occasional voiceovers, she professes that she seems to have had no alternative but to be his nth paramour. That does not bother Eleanor (played by Olivia Wilson) in the slightest; she is portrayed as a closet lesbian. Then one day stuttering King George VI (played by Samuel West) and his queen (played by Olivia Colman) come to visit, ostensibly to persuade the president to join Britain in its future battle for survival against Nazi Germany. Never before had any reigning British monarch visited America, so stereotypes are soon shattered. The king, charmed by FDR’s flattery, wit, and self-deprecating humor, realizes that he must impress ordinary Americans to win public opinion despite breaches of etiquette at Hyde Park noted by his queen. But the king’s test is simple – to eat a hot dog in the presence of photographers despite the queen’s insistence that such a phallic sight would be vulgar. Titles at the end inform filmviewers that in those days the press never wrote about his paraplegic existence or his mistresses. Margaret Stuckley aka Daisy, we learn in a final credit, lived to 100 years of age, saving every possible memento of her affair with the president, thereby providing juicy fodder for the filmwriter. The film may focus on the affair, but the nostalgia about FDR will primarily capture filmviewers. MH