‘Young Washington’ Review: A Stodgy Historical Primer

If nothing else, the new film about George Washington — released just in time for Donald Trumps’ 80th, I mean America’s 250th, birthday — will give our overworked schoolteachers a break. It’s all too easy to imagine them putting their feet up on their desks and taking a well-deserved nap while screening the film for their middle-school students. Depicting the military adventures of our first president when he was only in his early 20s during the French and Indian War, Young Washington provides an historical origin story that fits in well during our current superhero craze.

After an early scene in which we see 12-year-old George (Will Joseph) left bereft by the death of his father and consoled by his strong-willed mother Mary (Mary-Louise Parker) and half-brother Lawrence (John Foss), the rest of the story takes place in 1855. George (William Franklyn-Miller, Dongji Rescue), now a strapping, model-handsome 22-year-old man, is desperately ambitious to rise above his modest station in life.

After being rejected by the British army (oh, the irony!), he smartly insinuates himself with Lord Fairfax (Kelsey Grammer, playing a sort of 18th-century version of Frasier), who becomes his mentor. George manages to get himself commissioned as a major in the Virginia militia, albeit without pay, by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddle (Ben Kingsley, sporting a dodgy Scottish accent), primarily because of his knowledge of the surrounding area, which he’s exhaustively surveyed and where the French have begun encroaching.

His military career initially doesn’t go so well, including leading his men into a disastrous battle resulting in many casualties. But he soon learns his lessons and reveals his prowess, with his survival during the ensuing skirmishes ascribed to divine protection. One Indigenous leader, upon being introduced to Washington, solemnly intones, “I will remember that name.” And Dinwiddle, who formerly ridiculed Washington’s impetuousness, becomes a convert, telling him, “You are the man of the hour.”

As you can tell, the screenplay co-written by director Jon Erwin (House of David, American Underdog), Tom Provost and Diederik Hoogstraten features the sort of declamatory dialogue that seems more suited to accompany graphic novel panels. We never get a true feeling of Washington’s inner thoughts, which is less the fault of the actor playing him (although Franklyn-Miller’s air of blankness doesn’t help matters) than the cursory treatment that concentrates more on the numerous battle scenes. And while those sequences display an admirable historical accuracy in their depiction of the different fighting styles of the French and British forces of the period, they’re marred by digital special effects that often prove unconvincing.

Feeling much longer than its two hours, Young Washington suffers from the stiff, stodgy quality of so many historical dramas, especially those concerning that particular period of history (The Howards of Virginia, Revolution, The Patriot, I rest my case). And while the film features several well-known actors, their performances are mostly distracting. Andy Serkis, as an arrogant British general who fatally meets his comeuppance, is so over the top he makes his work as Gollum seem subtle.

Young Washington revels in its patriotism at every turn, but it was shot in Ireland, there apparently being nowhere in America that approximates the Virginia landscapes of the period. Even more egregiously, the film continues Angel’s penchant for its “Pay It Forward” marketing campaign, with the end credits featuring a special message from Kelsey Grammer extolling America’s virtues and imploring audience members to buy tickets for others so that we can help make it “America’s No. 1 Movie!” To do anything less, we’re given to believe, would be downright un-American.