Red, White & Royal Blue
Director: Matthew López
Writer: Matthew López, Ted Malawer
Based on: Casey McQuiston’s novel
Cast: Taylor Zakhar Perez, Nicholas Galitzine, Rachel Hilson, Ellie Bamber, Uma Thurman, Sarah Shahi, Clifton Collins Jr., Rachel Maddow, Juan Castano, Stephen Fry
Seen on: 13.11.2023

Plot:
Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez) is the US-American First Son – the son of the first female president of the United States. Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman) is running for re-election, and Alex knows that he should be on his best behavior. Unfortunately, when he is invited to the wedding of the English Prince, heir to the throne, Alex also runs into the groom’s younger brother Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine). And Alex has always hated Henry. Things come to a head between them, resulting in a destroyed wedding cake and an international diplomatic disaster. The solution? Alex and Henry have to spend more time with each other to prove to the world that they are actually good friends. They actually do get closer, revealing a lot more complex feelings for each other than anybody anticipated.

Much like the book, Red, White & Royal Blue is sweet, but didn’t completely win me over. I enjoyed it, but it’s not a film that I’ll revisit.

As an adaptation, Red, White & Royal Blue is loyal to the book for the most part, almost to a fault. That means that the film often feels like it moves from book highlight to book highlight instead of actually telling its story. A bit more focus on the big picture of the plot development instead of making sure that the most important scenes of the book are all covered by the film.

That being said, to my dismay the film deviated in one major way from the book: there is no June, Alex here is an only child. And since June was my favorite in the book, this was a very big disappointment for me. There was also a second thing they changed that is a bit of a spoiler but that definitely left a sour taste in my mouth as it seemed like a bit of internalized homomisia poking through. (I am talking about how the news about their relationship gets leaked.)

But overall, it is a nice watch. If you’re in the mood for a RomCom on the sweeter side of things (although more serious topics get hinted at), you could do way worse than watch this one. Perez and Galitzine have nice chemistry, the film is well-paced and there are some excellent cameos and known faces in supporting roles. There is something to be said for the ease of diversity in the cast.

Even more than that, though, there is something to be said for a film about a queer relationship that is just sweet and nothing more. Would I have minded a bit more grounding in reality instead of pretending that homomisia is fixed at the end of the film? No, not at all. But then again, hetero romances also like to pretend that sexism isn’t a thing. If they get that luxury, queer romances deserve the same chance.

Summarizing: fine, but not for more than a single watch.