On V.E. Day in 1945, as peace extends across Europe, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are allowed out to join the celebrations. It is a night full of excitement, danger and the first flutters of romance.
Director: Julian Jarrold
Writers: Trevor De Silva, Kevin Hood
Storyline
On V.E. Day in 1945, as peace extends across Europe, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are allowed out to join the celebrations. It is a night full of excitement, danger and the first flutters of romance.
User Reviews
Review: I really can't imagine the Queen being like the character in this movie! You can tell that the director used the true events to make up his own story because there is no way that these 2 public treasures would have not been recognised. Anyway, the storyline is about Queen Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, wanting to go out, incognito, during the VE Day celebrations in 1945. Margaret escapes from the two guards that were appointed by her dad to keep an eye on them and she goes to various parties while her sister is constantly looking for her, with the help of a soldier who knows the area. Elizabeth then finds out that Margaret is in Trafalgar Square so they make there way there while the 2 guards are oblivious of the whole situation. Elizabeth and the soldier end up bonding together while Margaret is getting herself deeper into trouble with the party goers. When they have finally reunited, Margaret goes back to the palace with the useless guards and Elizabeth makes her way home with her new love. The director really tried to make this a romantic comedy but the jokes aren't that funny and Elizabeth and Margaret were made out to be pompous idiots who haven't got a clue about life in the real world. There voices got on my nerves, especially Margarets and I lost interest in the plot very early in the film. There is yet to be a movie about Elizabeths childhood because of the tight security around her personal story so this has to be a made up storyline which really wasn't put together that well. On the plus side, the costumes and cinematography wasn't bad and I did like Rupert Everett and Emily Watson as Elizabeths parents but I was expecting a lot more from the film. Disappointing!
Round-Up: Bel Powley, who played Margaret, has been in many TV series here in the UK, like the Bill, Benidorm and Murderland, so this is basically her big screen debut. She starred in a movie called the Diary of a Teenage Girl alongside Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skarsgard but that hasn't been released in the UK yet so I can't really compare her previous work to this movie. She did stand out from the rest of the cast because of her fun and care free attitude but her pompous voice became a bit too much after a while. Canadian born Sarah Gadon was a weird choice to play Elizabeth because she actually isn't English, but she done a good job with job with the slightly boring script. At 28 years old, she has starred in some big movies like the Dangerous Method with Michael Fassbender and Kiera Knightly, Dream House with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, Enemy with Jake Gyllenhaal and the Amazing Spiderman 2 so she has had some decent experience in the movie world. I personally can't remember her in any of those movies so I can't really compare her previous performances to this movie either. I wasn't convinced that she could have been the Queen but that mostly down to the storyline, not her performance. The film was directed by Julian Jarrold who hasn't had that much experience with films for the big screen but he has directed quite a few TV episodes which include a couple for Coronation Street and Cracker. He made Kinky Boots in 2005, Becoming Jane in 2007 and Brideshead Revisited in 2008 but he decided to go back to directing for TV after that. This film would have made a better mini TV-series than a movie because there could have been much more attention to detail, especially in the storyline department.
I recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/romance/comedies about Queen Elizabeth and her sister wanting to party with the public during the VE Day celebrations. 2/10
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