Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our 32nd president, a charming, charismatic, vibrant leader, who navigated the nation through tumultuous times?
Or was he an arrogant, self-involved weakling, who took advantage of his power to satisfy every whim while being manipulated by his barrel ax of a mother?
Your answer to this question will determine your response to Hyde Park on Hudson. If, like the Movie Slut, you believed the first description of the patrician president, you won't be happy.
On the other hand, if like MS's multiplex companion, you hold to the second image, then you'll think this flick is just fine.
The high point of the film are scenes in which the King and Queen of England take the screen. It's 1939, and George, the stuttering royal from The King's Speech, and wife Elizabeth, visit Hyde Park to curry favor with the president, hoping he'll become an ally in the war that threatens to destroy the British Empire.
The lowest point is FDR's seduction of distant cousin Daisy (Laura Linney), an unworldly spinster, who fell in love with him only to discover that she was the other other woman.
Supposedly based on true accounts, this is a movie that proves fact can seem more fictitious than fiction.
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