Hyde Park on Hudson

Critics have liked and not liked "Hyde Park on Hudson."  Yesterday, at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute (where, just the day before, I'd seen "The Silver Linings Playbook") I leaned more toward the like—not caring if Bill Murray looked or talked precisely like FDR, not worrying about shifts in point of view, not needing (as much as many have needed) a definitive, end-of-tale summation of characters' real feelings.  There's this funny thing about feelings.  They change.  They're rarely definitive.

"Hyde Park on Hudson" is about a weekend during which the king and queen of England visited FDR at his mother's home while his mistresses, wife, and indomitable mother looked on.  It's about how hot dogs humanized a stuttering king.  It's about how humor saved two afflicted leaders.  It's about loving someone who cannot be owned. 

There are considered lines in this film, a few excellent scenes, some gorgeous landscapes.  I was glad I had chosen to take my husband on this late-afternoon movie date in the midst of Christmas madness.

Watch the trailer.  See what you think.