Red, White & Royal Blue is the Gay Rom-Com We All Deserve
Red, White & Royal Blue is the gay rom-com I never knew I needed.
I was a little hesitant going into this one, in all honesty. I haven’t read the book, written by Casey McQuinston and bearing the same name, but I heard it was really explicit in the language and sexual content departments. I’m all here for that, but I guess I was expecting more 50 Shades of Gay and less 10 Things I Hate About You in the final delivery.
Some minor spoilers may lie ahead, so proceed with caution, though nothing from the movie is explicitly ruined in the review :)
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What is Red, White & Royal Blue About?
The movie follows Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), who is the son of the first female president of the United States, Ellen (Uma Thurman). While Ellen tries to work on relations between the US and England, Alex has a little side feud going with Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), whom Alex deems a snob after Henry refuses to say hello to him upon their initial meeting.
Their friction winds up causing tension between the two countries, and after a cake disaster, the two have to embark on an apology tour of sorts to try to smooth things over between the countries. Through this, the two start to develop a special bond that grows throughout the film, ultimately culminating in them starting to date long distance and in secret.
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The relationship has a lot of highs and lows along the way, especially when it comes down to the difference in upbringing between the two and the different pressures they each carry for their countries.
Let’s take a closer look at each character.
Alex
Right away, Alex is upfront, confident, and funny. He’s charming with a winning smile and he really knows how to work a crowd.
Coming into the relationship, he has less experience in the world of men. Or, rather, he’s the only one who identifies as bisexual and admitted he had only been with two other men when discussing his newfound relationship with his friend, Nora (Rachel Hilson). One of those two men ultimately becomes jealous of the relationship and turns into the reason the world finds out, but that’s all I can say about that.
Alex’s mother, Ellen, though intense on her journey to be re-elected for a second term, is incredibly supportive of Alex when he admits his relationship to her. She asks him how he identifies, and when he says he’s bisexual, she reminds him that “the ‘B’ isn’t silent in LGBTQ.”
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Alex is also passionate about his mother’s time in office and becomes a main voice in her campaign as he turns his sights on the Republican state of Texas, which the Claremont-Diaz’s originally called home. This means he’s more used to delivering speeches and commanding attention in the room.
Following the leak on his relationship with Henry, Alex delivers a speech about the importance of queer identity and allowing people to express themselves on their own time and in their own manner. It’s one of the best moments in the entire film.
Henry
Henry, on the other hand, is a little bit different. He’s more reserved, he has centuries of history placed on him, and he has a lot more at stake than Alex.
Henry identifies as “gay as a maypole” but also hasn’t had much time to really explore his identity because of the weight of the monarchy. It is later revealed in the movie that the reason Henry was so aloof toward Alex when they first met was because of his attraction to him, but his inability to act on his desires because of who he was.
After Henry gets jealous of Alex kissing girls at the New Year’s Eve party he’s attended, he caves into his desires and kisses Alex, effectively starting their relationship.
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He, however, doesn’t have the same amount of support that Alex sees, which becomes a central conversation after Alex first tries to utter the “I love you” words so many of us long to hear. After Alex gets confused at Henry’s disappearance, Henry opens up about how much harder it is for him to simply be gay because he’s not allowed to. Alex was an “unknown” prior to his mother becoming president, whereas Henry has spent his entire life wondering what it would be like to be considered ordinary without the eyes of the world watching his every move.
After the relationship goes public, Henry becomes reclusive before ultimately getting the blessing from the king for their relationship, strange as he may consider it.
Dealing with Queer Identity
As mentioned above, I was a little nervous this movie was going to be another raunchy depiction of life as a gay man. I’m just as here for some man-on-man action as the next gay, but it would also be nice to have some more movies like this that actually show some more realistic depictions of a gay relationship.
I have some thoughts about the rating of this movie, which I think is absolutely ridiculous and unfounded and totally unfair. I agree with the director that the rating would be totally different were it a straight couple in this movie.
But I digress on that, sort of, for now.
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I like the depiction of queer identity in this movie, both showing the burden some people feel, the restrictions they might face, and the overall sense of what it meant to be able to be who you are in your own skin. There’s a nice juxtaposition between Alex and Henry’s friends and family as far as the support goes, which is a very real thing many gay relationships face. Alex even brings up a racist identity as well, saying those in America who had names ending in “z” didn’t usually get a lot of respect.
It was refreshing to have a movie that showcased why we fought so hard to be respected and simply allowed to love each other in the first place. It isn’t a secret that gay men love sex, and most of the literature (source material apparently included) and films in the gay space hyper-sexualize everything. Here, apart from the nice little butt shot we got from Zakhar Prince (and fine, I’ll admit I wish there were more), there wasn’t any reason this movie should have received the R rating it did.
Ugh, but seriously, I’m so mad about that.
Stream it or skip it?
Red, White & Royal Blue is definitely a film that deserves a slot on your watch list. It really is one of the greatest gay rom-coms of our time, and it deserves the praise all the anticipation built up to.
Though, I’m genuinely considering starting a Change.org petition to lower the rating. I’ve linked to my rant about it above, but I really think it’s offensive, unnecessary, and discriminatory. Giving it an R-rating shuts it off from such a huge audience they may be able to reach, especially those who are younger and need to see a relationship like this one on screen because of the fact that it isn’t hyper-sexualized.
Again, I haven’t read the original book as of this writing, so I can’t make any direct comparisons to how the film fared from its source, but it’s one that will be played a few times until I start to learn the lines myself.
