I wasn't originally going to write this review, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about this movie. "Red, White, and Royal Blue" is an LGBT rom-com, which isn't the rarity it used to be only a few years ago. It's based on a popular LGBT romance novel, which I have not read. The resulting movie adaptation is one of those fluffy, cuddly, impossible pieces of wish-fulfillment in more ways than one. First, there's the premise of the son of the US president falling in love with the crown prince of the UK. Then there's the US president being the first woman to occupy the office, with a subplot devoted to her reelection campaign and getting out the youth vote in Texas.
Anyway, the extremely photogenic Taylor Zakhar Perez plays First Son, Alex Claremont-Diaz, and only slightly less photogenic Nicholas Galitzine plays Prince Henry. The two can't stand each other at first, but end up in the middle of a massive storm of bad publicity after the opening scene, and are stuck on a public relations tour together to assure everyone that they haven't mucked up US-UK relations. Very quickly, they fall for each other, spend a lot of time trying to hide their relationship from everyone around them, fail spectacularly, and eventually have to decide whether they want to risk everything for love. It's a very typical rom-com, but the production is significantly more expensive than most, with a cast list to match. Uma Thurman plays our Madame President, with Clifton Collins Jr. as her husband, Sarah Shahi as her chief of staff, and Rachel Hilson as Alex's best friend Nora. On the other side of the ocean, Stephen Fry puts in a touching appearance as the fictional King James III.
The movie does absolutely nothing that I didn't expect it to, from the meet cutes to the plucky besties to the unexpectedly sympathetic and/or supportive parental figures. The alternate history and political fiction are mildly fun, but completely unrealistic. The romance never gets beyond showing mild groping, though there are pointed discussions about sex. The performances of the two leads are enthusiastic, but very mediocre, and nobody else gets much material to do anything with. Sarah Shahi gets in one really good rant (which is more than she got to do in "Black Adam,") but that's about it. The production is content to stick to a very glossy, very chintzy, and very familiar look. This is the directing debut of lauded playwright Matthew Lopez, but he seems to have been content to follow the well-established rom-com model, and I can't say I blame him. He's giving the intended audience what they want.
I guess the unremarkable nature of "Red, White, and Royal Blue" is what caught my attention. The tabloid-ready premise is an attention-grabber, but the actual story is told in about the safest, most non-controversial way possible. From what I've read, apparently everything involving American politics was greatly toned down, and even mildly controversial elements like a sexual predator character and Alex's parents being divorced were removed. The press isn't nearly as vicious as I was expecting, and public sentiment is almost immediately on the side of our unlikely couple. Alex and Henry don't even face as many hurdles as most heterosexual couples I've seen in similar rom-coms, like "The Prince and Me."
I don't watch many romantic comedies, so I'm not sure if all of them have been similarly neutered, or if this has something to do with the young target audience or the LGBT audience or what. High profile LGBT romances might be more common than they used to be, but that doesn't mean that they don't still have to tread lightly, considering the state of the culture wars. The movie is lightweight, cutesy, saccharine fluff, but it's also a sign of the times. We might be getting tired of having these conversations about representation and normalization, but we still need to have them. I doubt Stephen Fry wouldn't be playing the King of England in this movie if Alex were a she.
And maybe next time we'll get an LGBT rom-com with the guts to be a little more political and a little more daring. Maybe. Baby steps.
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