Post by pim on May 15, 2015 23:21:53 GMT 10
I saw it today. Based on the only single fact in the movie that the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret mingled incognito with the crowds on VE day and went dancing at the Ritz, the movie is a fantasy about what the Princesses got up to during that evening. Basically made for the American market - in the crowd scenes there are as many Stars & Stripes as there are Union flags, or Union Jacks if you prefer, the bowing and curtseying has the feel of what Americans believe royal protocol consists of, and since when do members of the British armed forces salute bareheaded? - it's all a bit madcap and even a bit charming in a quaint kinda way. The future Queen is portrayed very sympathetically as the "sensible" one and Margaret is utterly zany as the irresponsible flibbertigibbet (I love that word and I'm trying to resurrect it). As for King George VI and his wife whom we will know in our day as the Queen Mother, whoever those actors were they're certainly weren't Colin Firth whose portrayal of George VI in The King's Speech was so good it made the George VI character in A Royal Night Out look like he was made of cardboard. I forget who played his wife in The King's Speech but she was streets ahead of the portrayal of the same character in A Royal Night Out. But I don't want to be churlish. If you want to look for nits to pick you'll have no trouble finding them, but the movie is carried by the antics of the two princesses and especially Margaret. I don't believe a word of it but who cares. I had a good couple of hours entertainment. See it if you just want a bit of escapist entertainment. The willing suspension of disbelief is worth it.