"A Royal Night Out" (2015)

Two days ago in this space, I wrote about the 2016 movie "Carrie Pilby" and its charming young star, Bel Powley.  In researching her, I learned that she had appeared in a 2015 film called "A Royal Night Out" that had an intriguing premise: On VE Day, May 8, 1945, in London, the Royal Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret begged their parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to be allowed to leave the confines of Buckingham Palace to be able to celebrate the momentous occasion with "all the people."

In historical fact, Elizabeth and Margaret did leave the Palace that night, stood in the crowds in front of the Palace and walked the streets incognito as part of a group of sixteen people that included military personnel.  Elizabeth wore her military uniform and Margaret was only 14 at the time.  Neither was recognized and they were both back in the Palace by 1:00 AM.  (Officially, the night "never happened", and the future Queen spent the evening at an affair at the Ritz Hotel.)  That wouldn't have made much of a movie, however, so screenwriters Trevor De Silva and Kevin Hood and director Julian Jarrold takes on a "well-what-if-this-would-have-happened" journey wherein the Princesses shake their bodyguards, get separated, and spend the night trying to find each other, a journey that has them riding on public buses, takes them through Trafalgar Square fountains, a stuffy nightclub, a whorehouse (there is a great scene when a hungover Margaret recounts the evening to her parents and asks "just what is a Knocking Shop?"), dodgy parts of town, a ballroom where they dance to swing music, and other assorted adventures before they somehow manage to return to Buckingham Palace just as the sun comes up.  The future Queen learns the lessons of what everyday Londoners - she hears the King's VE Day address on a radio in a pub - think of the Monarchy and the effects of war on the many who served in it, courtesy of a young hunk of an airman named Jack. 

It was farfetched and kind of ridiculous, but it had its comic and charming moments, and it was highlighted by the young actresses who played Elizabeth and Margaret, Sarah Gadon and the aforementioned Bel Powley.

Sarah Gadon

as

"Subaltern Lieutenant Windsor"

Powley and Gadon

as 

The Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth 

"A Royal Night Out" gets Two Stars from The Grandstander.

"Carrie Pilby" (2016)

Thanks to a tip from friends Dan and Susan, we discovered the 2016 movie, "Carrie Pilby."  I had never heard of this movie, although I don't think that retired folks of a certain age - us! -  were not the target audience for this one.

It is the story of a young Englishwoman prodigy (she graduated from Harvard at age 18) living alone in New York City.  Still shaken from the death of her mother when she was twelve, Carrie is alone in NYC, and as smart as she is, she is having trouble adjusting to life.  In fact, she's pretty messed up.  She is seeing a therapist to help her cope, even though she's too smart to be doing so, she thinks.  At her father's insistence, she takes a job as a proofreader in a law firm, where she meets some "real" people.

This movie could - COULD - have been about an unlikable, over-entitled brat, but in the hands of first time director Susan Johnson and a completely engaging performance by Bel Powley as Carrie, the movie becomes a quite charming and even heartwarming coming-of-age teen RomCom.

Bel Powley is an English actress who was totally unknown to me, but I found her to be thoroughly delightful.  She is somebody for whom I will want to keep my eyes open.  Also in the cast where Nathan Lane as her therapist, Gabriel Byrne as her father, Josh Ritter as a blind date of Carrie's, and as her work girlfriend, Vanessa Bayer, and SNL vet who was a real hoot.

One really great scene is when Carrie and her good looking next door neighbor (William Moseley) take a walk through the New York streets at night.  The scene is shot in one continuous take with the two of them walking towards the camera.   Really nice.

Really fun little movie.  Three Stars from The Grandstander.