Hyde Park On Hudson – New York in the UK!

“The President. The First Lady. The King. The Queen. The Mother. The Mistress… One weekend would unite two great nations… After cocktails of course.”

With a tagline like that how could you resist the temptation to go and see this film, which came out on the 1st February. A story rife with scandal, a fascinating insight into a key historical moment and a study of the relationship between our Monarch and the American head of state at the time… all set at his private family estate.

Hyde Park On Hudson depicts the story of the love affair between FDR and his distant cousin Margaret “Daisy” Suckley, centered around the weekend in 1939 when the King and Queen of the United Kingdom visited upstate New York. With the world about to be set ablaze by war, friendships are struck and perspectives are gained on that special weekend that would make all the difference with a great, but very human, president.

Filming actually took place here in the UK, and the set of upstate New York was constructed by British production designer Simon Bowles. The director, also British, Roger Michell, (known best for his directing of Notting Hill) has recently said “We thought about abandoning our project because it would look like we were jumping on the bandwagon after ‘The King’s Speech’ was so successful, but ours was already in the works.”

Even though this film has received particularly mixed reviews, with one critic saying “Daniel Day-Lewis won’t be losing any sleep over Murray’s take on Franklin D Roosevelt.” And even going on to call it a “directionless drama”; we are very much looking forward to giving it a watch and forming our own opinion on this feel good movie.