Hyde Park on Hudson 2012

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Director Roger Michell's movie is, pretty consistently, dreadful. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: I wish I could say that Bill Murray's performance as FDR was so wonderful it transcended the material, but the truth is that Murray's character never fully emerges from the fog. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: 'Hyde Park on Hudson' is one of the most bizarrely muddled prestige pictures in recent memory. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Roosevelt was one of the towering figures of the 20th century, but he and his accomplishments scarcely register in this amorphous, bafflingly aimless movie. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Funny, believable, historic and hugely entertaining. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A small film that, for all its considerable charm, miniaturizes its hero in the process of humanizing him. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: By all rights "Hyde Park on Hudson" should be a slyly funny treat. It is, in places - but it's also strangely flat, as if screenwriter Richard Nelson lost interest somewhere along the way. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Hyde Park On Hudson depicts Roosevelt as a boozy adulterer, but it nevertheless tilts heavily towards hagiography. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: They're a fun bunch, these Roosevelts and their friends. But even in this crowd, fun's just not enough. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: I don't know if I've ever seen a movie as spectacularly tone-deaf as "Hyde Park on Hudson." Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: [A] middlebrow, middleweight and middling project ... Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Michell manages to wring the requisite mixture of pathos and mirth from the confab. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's never a bad movie, but it can't quite gel into a good one either. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: A movie in desperate search of a point, despite a good concept and colorful cast. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Bill Murray as FDR? It takes a few minutes to get used to, but once he settles into the role of the 32nd president, the idiosyncratic comic actor does a wonderfully jaunty job of it ... Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Though he has competition, especially from the folks playing the visiting royals, Murray is very much the reason to see "Hyde Park." Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: A languid, tedious effort that never bothers to get to the heart of its characters, the film is a shallow reading of a significant time told mostly from the viewpoint of a lifeless character. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: We can accept that F.D.R. was a charming cad, but if he weren't a great deal more than that there would be no reason to put him at the center of a movie. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: "Hyde Park on Hudson" doesn't dig deep enough into the man, or his women, to be a great film. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: In Hyde Park, actor and character share an evasive cunning beneath the hail-fellow-well-met charm that made Roosevelt such a hit with the press and the public. Read more

Linda Holmes, NPR: It appears that something magical is going to happen. But then it doesn't. It's all setting and no story, all beauty and no humanity ... Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: It's up to Murray to carry the film, which he does with stately calm. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Basically a frothy tabloid take on presidential history. And for my money, that's a good thing in a season filled with puffed-up prestige pictures. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A deceptively subtle portrayal in which the mostly deadpan comic star disappears beneath the pince-nez and the snappy brim of a presidential fedora, Murray offers a fascinating glimpse into a complex and charismatic figure ... Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Instead of focusing on FDR as a president, this movie gives up half its length to tawdry soap opera. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Hyde Park on the Hudson' is a forgettable historical footnote. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Murray, who has a wider range than we sometimes realize, finds the human core of this FDR and presents it tenderly. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I quite enjoyed "Hyde Park on Hudson" while I was watching it, but ultimately it feels like a minor picture on purpose, as if it had been deliberately designed to be everybody's second- or third-choice holiday film. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Just think of it as a movie about a friendly, sick old man who can be quite a handful, and put the real FDR out of your mind. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Casting Murray as FDR may feel like a gamble or a stunt at first, but after a few minutes the rightness of the choice is inarguable. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: There's an alliance of interesting stories fighting for dominance here, but instead of a clear victory, "Hyde Park on Hudson" is the site of a muddled truce. Read more

Noah Gittell, The Atlantic: [It] may have the look of a prestige picture, but it plays more like a version of FDR's life as told by TMZ, focusing on naughty details and ignoring the historical implications of the events depicted. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Essentially, Hyde Park on Hudson is a Shakespearean revel. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Roger Michell's brightly lit film turns America's 32nd president from world statesman into naughty codger, quite the fall from grace for the man who led his country through the Great Depression and the Second World War. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Even if this weren't a year when Daniel Day Lewis' turn as Abraham Lincoln was thrilling audiences and critics alike, this performance wouldn't rank among Murray's most memorable work. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Somewhat uneven and ultimately underwhelming, but there's plenty to admire and enjoy here nonetheless. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: King George's perpetual stutter is a drolly exploited plot point, as in 2010's awards-sweeping The King's Speech, as well as the pathos-ridden focus of the film's best scene, in which FDR boosts the monarch's confidence with a homespun story over cigars. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A romance that grows out of admiration over a stamp collection is about as boring as it sounds. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: An unseemly look at the private life of one of America's most revered commanders-in-chief. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: It's dispiriting that a film about the romantic life of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who cultivated a small coterie of mistresses, should exhibit so little interest in what engaged its hero ... Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: This is a cool, collected, concise film - to its detriment. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Murray's spot-on portrayal of a man juggling myriad pressures and demands, from petty to momentous, marks one of the film's greatest strengths. Read more