If you have seen Audrey Hepburn’s classic Roman Holiday, director Julian Jarrold’s A Royal Night Out is similar in that we see two princesses escape their “positively cloistered” lives for an adventure in the city. But, does the latter have the same timelessness and charm of Hepburn’s film?
While Hepburn’s Princess Ann is fictional from an unnamed country, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are real-life historical figures. One in fact is still the ruling Monarch of Great Britain, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The film is based on a factual account of then Princess Elizabeth who went incognito on the eve of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, the end of WWII in Europe. Princess Elizabeth, along with her sister Margaret and friends, spent a night out to join the rest of London merry-making in the streets and returned to Buckingham palace shortly after midnight. This movie however is a creative retelling of what might have transpired that night.
Films about royalty intrigue us because we’re curious about the kind of life they lead, their day-to-day, what their dreams and anxieties might be, and whether they are in fact normal just like the rest of us. In this film, we don’t get to see much of that because it is they – the royalty – who wonder what it would be like to be normal, a commoner out in the streets celebrating life, if only for one night.In the movie, the story goes the ruling Monarch of England King George VI, played by Rupert Everett, speaks over radio to mark the end of war on the eve of VE Day. There is celebration and revelry in the streets, and the teenage Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are keen to join the masses. They are however expected to be at their father’s side when he makes his speech. Elizabeth rationalises that by being out with the people, she can be her father’s eyes and ears, to observe how his speech is received. If you remember from the Oscar-winning The King’s Speech, George VI is the king with a stutter so he is intrigued by his daughter’s proposal. The princesses are granted their night out on the condition that they return at 1 a.m. and be chaperoned by a pair of military officers.
Without revealing too much of the plot, their night becomes one adventure after another as the pair run around London. There is a bit of slapstick involved which was unexpected. You see the story opens with a black and white close-up of a pensive 19-year old Princess Elizabeth, played by Sarah Gadon, as if setting a serious tone of internal conflict and transformation.
The 14-year old Margaret, played by the scene-stealing Bel Powley, meets a suave Officer of the Navy and hers is a story of danger and reckless abandon. Elizabeth, on the other hand, meets an Airman of the Royal Air Force (RAF), disenchanted from his experience in the war. Her night quickly becomes a mission to restore things to order. By the end of the film, the princesses get their time on the dance floor and return to Buckingham Palace.
Overall the film is enjoyable with plenty of that British brand of comedy, but perhaps tries too hard with romance. Character-wise, there’s some left to be desired. Jack, the RAF airman, played by actor Jack Reynor, is supposed to be a soldier scarred by war and is in danger of being a deserter as a consequence. It turns out for Elizabeth, he is the only contrarian to the King’s speech. When he finally reveals his war trauma, I half-expected a silent black and white flashback of how he loses a friend and fellow soldier. This lack of character exposition doesn’t help toward understanding why Elizabeth insists to be with him the whole evening.
Nonetheless towards the end of the film, both Elizabeth and Jack transform and though they have the beginnings of a romance, they return to their respective duties.
Perhaps it was wrong in the beginning to compare this film to Hepburn’s escaped-princess story. A Royal Night Out not only portrays the similar if short-lived romance that leaves you optimistic, it is also a worthy look back at London on VE Day, a moment in history when the whole of Europe, and eventually the rest of the world, celebrated the end of a terrible world war. More interestingly, it is an unexplored portrayal of a contemporary personality in her youth who continues to reign to this day and soon-to-be longest ruling monarch at that.
Watch the trailer here:
