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YMMV / A Royal Night Out

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  • Awesome Music: The music played at Chelsea Barracks when the princesses finally get to their party.
  • Broken Base: The Artistic Licence – History. Some viewers can't forgive it and feel it hurts the story, while others take it as Rule of Funny and enjoy the film with a dose of the MST3K Mantra.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Bel Powley's performance as Margaret makes her the preferred character in the movie. Doubly ironic considering how little information Powley claimed was out there about the real woman in her youth.
  • Genius Bonus: Everyone else calling Elizabeth "Lillibet". That was her nickname from a young age, because she wasn't able to pronounce her own name as a child - and 'Lillibet' was what she called herself.
  • He Really Can Act: After playing a character who was The Scrappy in Transformers: Age of Extinction, Jack Reynor proves that What Richard Did was not a fluke. He gives a very subtle and layered performance as a Shell-Shocked Veteran, more than holding his own against the two leads. More superficially, he also nails the 1940s era cockney accent.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: This 2015 movie is about Elizabeth anticipating that she'll be Queen one day, and ends with her affirming her life of duty after one evening of fun. The very next year, The Crown (2016) starts airing; and that series begins with her becoming queen. Some even joked that A Royal Night Out was a prequel.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • Mickey the gay palace servant, who snaps to attention whenever the princesses pass. He got the information about the Chelsea Barracks party for Margaret from one of his "friends", and also gets this fun exchange.
      Margaret: We're incognito.
    • The spiv in Soho (Roger Allam) who helps Margaret get to Chelsea - and is a huge fanboy of the Royal Family. He doesn't have a lot of screentime but his part is one of the more memorable in the film.
      "P-2 in my knocking shop?"
  • Questionable Casting: Some people had this reaction to Rupert Everett getting cast as King George.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
  • Tear Jerker:
    • During the otherwise lovely VE night celebrations, Elizabeth catches sight of a few people crying into each other's arms. She also asks a stranger if she lost someone in the war, to which the woman becomes a little misty-eyed. It goes to show that, although it was a time for celebration, there were still people who had lost friends and loved ones in the War.
    • The Mood Whiplash towards the end where Elizabeth excitedly talks about a hypothetical life where she wouldn't have to be a princess. As it goes on, Jack has to bring her down to Earth by saying "we both know that's never gonna happen". Elizabeth's cheerful excitement vanishes, and she can only reply with a quiet (but no less sad) "quite".
    • A subtler example is the scene where Jack has found out her true identity. Look at it from his perspective; this friend he's spent all night with has lied to him about who she is. He's already prejudiced against the upper class and he's probably thinking she was just Trolling him. Note that this comes after he's opened up about having his stripes taken off him and his friend dying in his arms.
    "You made a first class prat out of me!"
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Queen Mother in real life was known to be a charming and witty Cool Old Lady. She doesn't feature too much in this film, mostly as a rather stuffy Upper-Class Twit.

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