Hyde Park on Hudson

Bill Murray plays FDR in this tonally abhorrent, stank movie about the former president’s dalliances with distant cousin Daisy (Laura Linney) around the time he was meeting Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) and King George VI (Samuel West) to discuss WWII and eat hot dogs. Watching FDR get a hand job from his cousin is bad enough, but this film’s obsession with hot dogs is maddening. Olivia Williams is on hand as Eleanor Roosevelt, and she’s good enough to make you wish the movie was just about the former first lady. Murray is dull here, giving us an FDR who doesn’t seem capable of staying awake let alone running a country. Even worse is Linney, who looks and sounds lost (her voiceover narration is infuriating). Director Roger Michell doesn’t seem to know whether he is making an historical drama, a comedy or sleep fuel. It’s uneven, it’s embarrassing, and it needed to be stopped. Yet, here it is, trying to garner Oscar nominations. In case you can’t tell, I hate this movie. I hate it very much.