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Royal Faceoff, an independent film by Stuart M. Pepper, is about a 15-year-old student named Diana Arnold (Alyssa Bernier), a direct descendent of Benedict, whose class is given an assignment: to find a cause to change the world and put the cause into movement. This assignment coincides with a social studies lesson about the British Royal Family, in which the teacher tells the class that the Queen of England is a useless figurehead.
In the meantime, Diana’s father has decided to invest in gold coins and,
as a result, receives a book about coins as a birthday gift. Diana, while
browsing through the book, notices that several countries have the Queen’s
face on their money. Diana decides to come up with a worldwide movement
via the Internet to get the Queen’s face removed from the money. The movement’s slogan is “Abdicate the face; put a hero in her place.” Diana thinks that “heroes” like Princess Diana, the Beatles, and other icons from Britain
and other Commonwealth countries should adorn the money instead. Diana sets up a Web page, and the movement really takes off. While some people support
the movement, others do not, and Diana and her father (who’s helping
with the project) receive correspondence promising retribution if the
movement doesn’t stop.
Diana and her father travel to England, where Diana is invited to speak
at a rally for her cause. There, they encounter more stumbling blocks from those
mysterious people who are against her cause. While in England, a
surprised Diana is invited to meet with the Queen (Lesley Staples).
While Edward Burns’s film The Brothers McMullen was a great success and a shining example of how a limited budget doesn’t have to detract from a
good story, I fear that Mr. Pepper will not receive such accolades. This
low-budget movie is what you would expect for a B-movie independent film.
The song in the beginning of the film and again during the credits is a
bad attempt at hip-hop, and much too long. The acting is bad, as is the
makeup. The film is billed as a comedy/mystery. While there is mystery,
I found the humor lacking. The Queen’s character is ambiguous—like she
was supposed to be cast as an evil witch, but then the filmmaker changed
his mind. The students themselves appear ignorant (to the point where one
may think, If they’re our future, were in trouble.). Diana, however,
appears smarter than her parents, her goofy brother, and her moronic
boyfriend.
While I myself have been known to poke fun at the Royal Family, this film
takes a very anti-monarchy stance. For example, their teacher teaches the
students that the Royal Family is outdated and unnecessary. The students had never
heard of the Royal Family, didn’t know the Queen was sovereign to more
than one country, and had never seen the Queen’s picture until the teacher
showed them some British money. Several times throughout the film the
Queen is called “ugly,” and the students toss about words like “arrogance”
and “undue influence” because of what they were taught. Such personal
attacks are unwarranted in what’s supposed to be a family movie.
Let’s suffice it to say that the movie’s ending is tangential and
enigmatic, not quite in keeping with the plot that taking the Queen’s face
off of money would really change the world. I myself find it hard to
believe that Britons and the citizens of the Queen’s Commonwealth
countries really care whose puss is on the money, so long as the money is
good.
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