Hyde Park on Hudson Directed by Roger Michell

Hyde Park on Hudson

Directed by Roger Michell

Starring: Bill Murray, Samuel West, Laura Linney

Country: UK

Year: 2012

Review by Roberto Matteucci

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President of the United States from 1933 to 1945, the year of his death. He was forced into the wheelchair because he was hit by polio.

His fame at the time was immense. Four times won the presidential election, he was respected and popular.

During his presidency he was obliged to face the economic crisis of the great depression and then the attack on Pearl Harbor with the resulting Second World War.

His residence was, like today, the White House in Washington. But he often returned to Hyde Park on Hudson, at the home of his birth.

It became the residence of the President's summer and weekend breaks.

In this house, he hosted in June 1939 the King of England George VI and his wife Elisabeth.

About the events of this historic visit, Roger Michell directs the movie Hyde Park on Hudson.

The President was married, but he loved the feminine beauty. He had several lovers. One of them was from his homeland, the fifth-degree cousin Deissy.

The voice-over of Deissy tells us, through their relationship, about the President's vision and his life.

The director grants us a fascinating, powerful Roosevelt. He tells about his private and personal character of a suffering, old man, withered. Roosevelt tries to hide his weaknesses in public but he looks normal in the private of his old house.

Deissy was immediately struck by his seduction. The President was happy with her: they enjoyed escaping by the car in the beautiful and colorful countryside. Together they are surrounded by bright, solar lights. Deissy's joy is in the green fields of Georgia.

The President is not alone. Women constantly surrounded him: a bothering mother, a disheartened wife, a sexy assistant and now also comes to her cousin Deissy.

He is too much attracted to the women, causing him some troubles

The King and his wife arrive. The image is symmetrical. The President sitting in front of the house, smiling, ironic, and the front of the royal machine arriving slowly, stopping at a meter from him.

It is the encounter of two similar but diffident worlds. The United States was born from a rib of the British Empire, so they have the same matrix, the same way of seeing life, but styles are completely conflicting. The President knows that if they do not get rid of past prejudices, the risk of England in lonely war is sure and very dangerous for freedom.

The second part of the film is a comparison between the popular President and an aristocratic couple of sovereigns.

George VI suffers - as we well know from The King's Speech - of stuttering. It is a snob, with serious difficulties to be himself, and he is not prepared to face the republicans as Americans are.

He is comical when he expresses his desire to meet with indigenous people, and talk with them. He comes down from the car and greets awkwardly, but the farmers ignore him.

Samuel West played George VI, with exceptional facial appearance. Bill Murray is a great President Roosevelt, which has a mocking ironic grin all the movie.

The dialectic between the two worlds is another key to reading.

Mostly is Queen Elizabeth to show off all her snobbery. While the King and the President begin to appreciate mutual irony, showing their most human part, freeing themselves from the institutional scaffold.

The director delights us with the Queen's embarrassed expression when he looks at the room assigned to them. In the walls of their room, there are some sarcastic cartoons about the war between the Americans and the British of 1812. The painter drawn the caricature of English soldiers with the appearance of ridiculous monkeys.

However, another problem must tackle the Royal family; the President planned a picnic with hot dogs. Picnic is not a traditional food in Buckingham Palace.

Better human relationship is born between the King and the President. In private, they talk about women. The President is proud of his knowledge of the female soul.

The two men are naked in front of each other. Stuttering and polio, they are both victims of physical scarring, but both facing public appearances with no weaknesses. They both communicate and confess each other. In a great shot reverse shot, the director reduced the distance between them.

The closing of the meeting is taken by off-field shooting, framing the door of the living room. We hear two voices talking about Archbishop of Canterbury. The door opens and a tipsy King comes out. Now there is a feeling between them. Now it is sure, the USA will help UK during World War Second.

The Queen does not understand, however. The relationship between King and Queen is not easy. George VI suffers the personality of his brother Edward, who was King and abdicated for love. His wife faces the weakness of her husband by comparing his volubility with his brother's strength: "Your brother would never accept it" the Queen rebuked him.

Yet, it will be the act of biting a hot dog to break the mistrust between the two populations. The King eats the sandwich with big smiling while journalists and present applaud. The King has become one of them breaking the barriers. The hot dog becomes the symbol of friendship, because humility is not a weakness but a value.

The background is the love story between the President and her women. Many fighting for them, jealousy, quarrels, pursuits, but the happy end is necessary, love wins.

The film is full of elegant images, details, attention to the psychological construction of the characters. The ironic tone serves to build the characters with a great vision through the physical position of the actors, always in the right place.

The relationship between Deissy and the President remained secret until Deissy's death. It is a romantic story in a world where the private of our politicians is considered public, the behavior of the King and the President is out of our time.