The film relies heavily on the coltish charms of its young leads, and Powley's effervescent, well-timed performance as the younger princess (she calls herself "P2") is skillful enough to bring out the screwball latencies in an otherwise bland screenplay.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Time Out London by Cath Clarke
When it’s playing for laughs, ‘A Royal Night Out’ is harmless good fun.
Screen International by Fionnuala Halligan
There’s a jazzy air throughout and the sound of the dance halls resonate.
Julian Jarrold’s brightly performed exercise in speculative history scores as a frothier, more feminine bookend to “The King’s Speech” — though it’s no less engaging or accomplished.
Jarrold struggles to sweep things along with quite enough vigour – budget constraints crowd the edge of the frame – but Gadon is intoxicating as Elizabeth.
The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin
Despite it’s entirely predictable, cliché-embracing script, executed with a shrewd mix of forelock-tugging rectitude and cheekiness by director Julian Jarrold (Brideshead Revisited, Kinky Boots), it remains an eminently watchable diversion.
It’s a thin, trickledown sort of fun.
A cheerful comedy-drama with charm to spare.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
Of course it’s lightweight, bordering on disposable.... But it’s also genuinely warm-spirited, with three lovable central performances from Gadon, Powley and Reynor
The surprises are few, and none of it am0unts to a whole lot. But for those up to taking yet another British sentimental journey to “their finest hour,” A Royal Night Out manages something unheard of in the decades of Windsor wooliness since. It makes them cute, if only for one night.