Picoreview: A Royal Night Out: charming.
A Royal Night Out is ever so loosely based on V.E. Day in England, 1945, when a young Elizabeth and Margaret were granted permission to go out into the crowds to celebrate like everybody else. In real life, this apparently happened after Elizabeth, standing up on the balcony with her parents, realized she couldn’t *see* any of the people, not at all, because of the spotlights on the royal family, and she wanted to be able to see and participate.
The movie is an entirely fictionalized and charming adventure story that totally didn’t happen, but falls firmly under the auspice of Should Have Happened; it’s the kind of sweet adventure that you would *want* a couple of princesses to be able to experience.
Rupert Everett is a gem as King George, with a magnificent vulnerability about how his speech is received, and Emily Watson is at her best acerbic self as the Queen Mother, but one wouldn’t expect less from either of them, particularly Watson. Sarah Gadon’s young Elizabeth has an absolutely lovely rapport with Everett that I thought made the film, and there were some pretty wonderful bits with Bel Powley’s Margaret, who is the more adventuresome/less bright/less responsible sister. So I enjoyed it quite a bit, and would say it’s a very nice choice of movie for when you need something light and sweet and essentially kind.