Starring: Sarah Gadon, Bel Powley, Jack Reynor, Rupert Everett, Emily Watson, Roger Allam, Ruth Sheen
Distributor: Transmission Films
Runtime: 98 mins. Reviewed in May 2015
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Released to coincide with the 70th anniversary of VE Day, the end of the war in Europe, A Royal Night Out tells the story (allegedly based on fact or two) of Elizabeth and Margaret persuading their regal parents to allow them to go out for the evening to join the celebrations in London.
It was not long into the screening before this reviewer thought, “Republicans, beware”. For audiences, much like the character, the soldier Jack, who unknowingly encounters Princess Elizabeth in the pub as everyone wants to listen to the King’s speech, there will be enjoyment reservations. He is anti-establishment, is irritated by the King and by royalty, and is told to pipe down by the awed listeners. Although, by the end, Jack has come to like Lizzie, and so have we. He has spent a lot of the film helping to (or being pressurised to) search with her for Margaret who has wafted off into the night to enjoy herself (including learning how to signal for the bus to stop as well as falling out on top of a soldier), often unwittingly in very dubious company.
But that is probably to take the film far too seriously. It is meant to be a lark. The girls have been sheltered, Elizabeth 19, Margaret 14, not really having had any of this kind of ordinary experience for themselves, except Elizabeth and her work with vehicles during the war, posh style, posh accents (referred to several times throughout the film), and a propensity to order, even make presumptuous demands on the people around without realising it. Actually, Elizabeth has had a night of experiences, learning about people, appreciating that she is mixing with people she doesn’t usually meet, with Jack taking her to the home of his working-class mother with some awareness of what he had experienced as a pilot during the war.
Margaret is flighty, gets tangled with some military types who were letting loose (to put it mildly) with drink and women as they celebrate, but also finds herself accompanying a number of ladies of the night as well as the manager of the Soho “club” to Chelsea barracks. Another military type puts something into her drink so that she becomes quite dipsy when she is tipsy.
The King is of a rather stern demeanour but has let he is daughters go out. The Queen is far more wary, far more prim than her image as the Queen Mother over the decades.
The recreation of the period and of VE night, sometimes with the help of newsreel footage, certainly captures the atmosphere. The performances a strong, Sarah Gadon bringing some intensity to her portrait of Princess Elizabeth, Bel Powley indicates the kind of reputation Princess Margaret would have in the future. It is a surprise to see Rupert Everett as the George VI. Emily Watson fits easily into the role of Queen Elizabeth. Jack Reynor is Jack who is surprised to find himself at breakfast in Buckingham Palace and driven back to barracks, with aplomb and rapidity by Lizzzie. Roger Allam is good as the Soho boss and Ruth Sheen as Jack’s mother.
A Royal Night Out is probably best for older audiences and those who admire the Royal family, but might have a touch of much ado about very little for younger audiences who don’t have an affinity for Queen Elizabeth and her family.
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