Biographical movies can be a daunting task. Their subjects often have larger-than-life stories that are focal points for controversy. Actor Bill Murray says that what attracted him to the role of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in "Hyde Park on Hudson," was less of the former element and a touch of the latter.
"What I did not want was a straight-on formal biography," Murray tells The Japan Times. "No sweeping epic, which FDR's career would require. The script's specificity is what pulled me in."
The film, directed by Roger Michell, is so specific that it centers primarily on one weekend: June 7-10, 1939. That was the weekend Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, in Hyde Park, New York. The king visits to shore up support for Britain as war with Germany looms, but the film focuses on the relationship the president has with his sixth cousin Margaret "Daisy" Suckley (played by Laura Linney).