Located at the farthest reaches of the British Commonwealth, the town of Middleton, New Zealand—the setting of the film Her Majesty—seems an unlikely place for the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II to visit. On the other hand, it does manufacture a lovely cheddar cheese and serves as the home of Sally Andrews, a young royalty enthusiast who embarks on a one-girl PR campaign to bring QEII to her hometown. When the Queen agrees, it throws the town into chaos. Or, perhaps more accurately, it reveals the chaos that's always beneath the surface of the small town, particularly once the image-conscious residents train their focus on a crumbling old house that's home to Vicky Haughton, an aged Maori woman whom some in town think must be a witch.
Andrews, on the other hand, remains more intrigued than frightened. Perhaps sensing nobility of another kind, she strikes up a friendship with Haughton, slowly earning her trust as she helps her perform household chores and listens to stories of her ancestors. The town, on the other hand, doesn't want the friendship to go too far. In spite of a changing economic climate that finds more and more Maori working alongside Middleton's white residents, the prevailing attitude remains clear: They keep to their kind, and we'll keep to ours.
Writer-director Mark J. Gordon tells his story with a meat-and-potatoes family-entertainment style that does nothing to hide its too-leisurely pace or the stock-character origins of the supporting cast. (The safe bet says the town busybody gets what's coming to her.) But for a while, at least, it admirably captures Andrews' political awakening, as her friendship with Haughton unexpectedly raises her awareness of the dark side of empire-building, the way the smooth, bright surfaces of the 1950s worked to cover up the past, and the fact that racism doesn't so much fade away as take on new, more insidious forms with each generation. Then Her Majesty hits a ridiculous ending that undermines virtually all these points. It's as if Gordon feared his film's none-too-subtle suggestion that kids should ask questions and decided to provide answers instead, tying up his story with a phony happy ending. He spends the first parts of Her Majesty creating an audience that will see through the tricks he pulls with the last parts of it.