ONE SUMMER IN "HYDE PARK ON HUDSON"

By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com

My favorite line regarding Bill Murray as President Franklin D. Roosevelt in “Hyde Park on Hudson” is in Roger Ebert’s observation that “This isn't a serious historical film.”

Coming in the same season as Daniel Day Lewis’s plangent portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the richly detailed “Lincoln,” Murray’s best strategy for any Academy Awards is to place himself in a completely different field of play altogether.

Exactly what that the name of that field would be isn’t clear.

Murray is pretty much the last person one would think of as the perfect person to play FDR. The comic actor has never been known for his presidential bearing. He isn’t here, either.

But what Murray does do to make “Hyde Park” interesting is capture a sense of the double life every leader of the free world must live – there is the public persona exuding power and confidence, while deep down inside is that little man behind the curtain, frantically pulling strings and dancing as fast as he can.

Murray’s sad-eyed portrayal of the president who never had a moment to himself is spot-on. In the summer of 1939, with Europe about to go up in flames, FDR is summering in his mother’s family mansion, Springwood, near Hyde Park in upstate New York.

Along with plotting strategy to keep America out of the war, but staying ready to oppose Hitler’s deadly war machine, FDR was desperately wanting to have some fun conversations with someone who wasn’t involved in government. He dispatched a request to his sixth cousin, Margaret “Daisy” Suckley (Laura Linney), that she come for a visit.

Linney presents Daisy as a shy thing totally intimidated by the “culture” of political associates and aides that swirled around Roosevelt. Daisy is allowed total access because the president insists on it.

There is no romance between the two, as we ordinarily understand the word, but there certainly is a mutual accommodation.

Against this backdrop is the “social visit” of England’s King George V (Samuel West) and Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman).  This is the same King George portrayed so brilliantly in “The King’s Speech,” so even though it is a different actor, we already feel a little more connection to the inner life of King George.

The center of “Hyde Park on Hudson” is getting a nice peek at the bedroom conversations of George and Elizabeth, worrying how their visit will be perceived on the world stage of political powers.
This contrasts nicely with Roosevelt’s own weariness with power and his solution to seek out Daisy.