4 stars out of 5
If there was a TV channel with just Bill Murray playing Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Laura Linney as his cousin Daisy, I would probably spend entirely too much time watching it, ignoring basic standards of hygiene and socialization. This movie is simply that comfortable, with a well-sustained, calming mood.
Now, if you’re looking for presidential history and really top-notch filmmaking, let me point you in the direction of Lincoln. And Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance is ultimately stronger than Bill Murray’s. This very much feels like a play and in fact was based on a 2009 radio play. So you’ll often have Two Characters Talking With Carefully Scripted Dialogue Until a Specific Point Is Made (“You stutter? I have polio!”) annnnd…. scene!
In fact, if it wasn’t for Murray and Linney, this might seem like a straight-to-DVD sequel of The King’s Speech. Samuel West does good work as everybody’s favorite stuttering monarch, Bertie. Good to see Peep Show’s Sophie as Queen Elizabeth but Olivia Colman, you’re no Helena Bonham Carter. Elizabeth Marvel—who I know most as the diner-waitress sister in the semi-crappy TV boxing drama Lights Out—plays the other other other other woman. (As the presidential-film actress of the year, she’s also in Lincoln.) We all fell in love with Olivia Williams in Rushmore, didn’t he? Looks like Murray won out because they’re once again teamed here. Except now she’s Eleanor Roosevelt and she digs chicks! Deal with it, modern film audiences!
So again, subtlety isn’t the top priority here. Instead, it felt to me like a relaxing trip to the country with FDR as our genial host. As Day-Lewis made Lincoln human, so too does Murray pull Roosevelt off the dime and make him a living person. There’s a low-key charm, dignity, and good nature that Murray perfectly captures, and he is a joy to watch. THe film’s FDR is both very powerful (leader of the free world, after all) and yet very vulnerable. Most importantly, he’s a father figure: to the country, to the King of England, to his secret-lover-cousin Daisy. And who wouldn’t want Bill Murray as their dad?
Ultimately—and yet again, not subtly—the point of the movie is the secrets we keep. And maybe more so, which I just mentioned in a book review, the lies we tell ourselves to get through the day. That’s Laura Linney’s strength here. But I guess it’s something we all have a lot of practice with.
Jack Silbert, curator