3 stars (out of 5)
Costume-drama-friendly director Julian Jarrold’s latest is obviously more comedic than his Brideshead Revisited or Becoming Jane and features some fine playing by a prestige cast, and yet the whole thing feels pretty uneasy as, in the end, one can’t help but suspect that nothing here ever actually, you know, happened.
It’s VE Day (May 8 1945), Europe is celebrating (well, the countries that won, that is), and the teenage Princesses Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) and Margaret (Bel Powley) are keen to get out and party beyond the Palace – you know, with (oh I say!) the commoners. Elizabeth, in particular, feels that it might be her last chance before she eventually takes the throne for the next 150 years, but the girls’ parents, Queen Elizabeth (Emily Watson) and King George VI (Rupert Everett, a hoot), are horrified at the idea, and impose military chaperones to accompany the headstrong pair to the Ritz. This seems as far as any approaching ‘fact’ goes, however, as P1 and P2 naturally escape the stuffy event set up for them and get separated in the crowd, with the tipsy Marg going wherever she’s taken by strangers (was she really this silly?) and Liz pursuing her to Trafalgar Square and beyond with help from a mysterious soldier named Jack (the supposedly dreamy Jack Reynor).
Calculatedly audience-pleasing, there’s nevertheless plenty here to enjoy for forgiving punters, especially Gadon’s lovely performance (she certainly looks the part too), Everett’s secretly funny turn (note his stammer) and a few pleasing, if sometimes heavily contrived, gags. However, despite all of that, the nagging feeling that this is all right royal poppycock remains.
I Wake Up Screening 