Parents' Guide to

The Queen

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Well-acted drama isn't likely to appeal to kids.

Movie PG-13 2006 103 minutes
The Queen Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 12+

Based on 2 parent reviews

doctora
doctora Parent of 5-year-old
June 1, 2022
age 13+

Helen Mirren slays!

Mirren slays this role. I believe her, her poise, her dignity as well as the trappings of her position. The metaphor with the stag offers some interesting pacing. The emotional attachment to Princess Diana came back all over again and I was reminded of how much I had grown up with her as the face of the British royal family, but it is really Queen Elizabeth II who has to dar la cara. A two hour film to dar cara...Mirren does it with style, grace, and aplomb, nonetheless the film tries to not play favorites.
Lucca S.
Lucca S. Adult
February 20, 2018
age 10+

Great! Just need to be interested in the subject

This movie is appropriate for any age as long as you are interested! The movie is more supportive of Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Cambridge's fans and supporters because it's more on a negative point of view of Her Majesty The Queen. So if you are a strong monarchist and a supporter of Elizabeth Regina, don't watch it. Unless if you need to know about the subject. It is also comforting for people who loved the ex-Princess of Wales.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

THE QUEEN is fictionalized account of the months following Princess Diana's fatal 1997 car crash. Directed by Stephen Frears and scripted by Last King of Scotland writer Peter Morgan, the movie specifically explores the conflict between Queen Elizabeth II's (Helen Mirren) expectations of "her people" and their expectations of her. While the family -- especially Prince Philip (James Cromwell) and the Queen Mother (Sylvia Syms) -- stubbornly dismisses the public outpouring of grief (the queen insists her subjects will "come to heir senses"), Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) sees the mourning and increasing outrage as an expression of collective frustration with the royals being "out of touch."

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2):
Kids say (4):

For its first hour or so, The Queen is carried along by a witty irreverence, equally targeting the queen and Blair as both manage their self-image. But then, instead of trusting Mirren to convey the queen's emotional transition -- which she does, brilliantly -- the film comes up with a heavy-handed metaphor for the loss of tradition. During one countryside excursion, the queen spots a magnificent stag and tries to save it from being shot, appreciating its beauty, vulnerability, wildness, and purity.

If this isn't enough, the film later delivers the Queen's "lesson" in an oddly passionate speech by Blair to his staff, which instructs them (and viewers, as if they haven't been watching the queen pondering her dilemma for the past 90 minutes) on the queen's efforts to make sense of her new age. In this moment, the film shows a lack of faith in its own audience.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the tensions between traditional royal propriety and "modern" media representations. How does the film argue that this crisis -- the frenzy over Diana's death -- caused a shift in that relationship, since the royal family had to accommodate public sentiment rather than have subjects to follow their lead? How is the conflict between old and new explored in the relationship between the queen and Tony Blair (in this version of events, he embodies "modernization")? How accurate do you think this version of events really is?

Movie Details

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