Ok, now that I've had a chance to get the issues with the differences between the book and movie forms of Red, White, & Royal Blue out of my system, I went back and rewatched the movie and discovered that I was able to really enjoy it a lot more than I did the first time. Since I wasn't so ensnared by the differences, I was really able to just enjoy the movie for what it was. This time, I felt all the feelings I was expecting to feel the first time.
Before I get started talking about the movie, I have to address some people online who were saying the the movie was just like the book. No, it absolutely was not. If you say that, you are either being dishonest or you didn't actually read the book. Yes, the core of the book (the love story between Henry and Alex) was there as where most of the major beats between them, but there was so much else that was changed. In interviews, Matthew Michael Lopez (the director and co-writer) said that he was ruthless about cutting out anything not directly related to the love story because he wanted to focus on that. So the movie kept the heart of the book, but missed a whole lot of other things.
So let's start off with the fact that, on the surface, Red, White, & Royal Blue is nothing revolutionary. It closely followed all of the rom-com tropes, especially of similar films that came out in the late 90s and early 2000s like Chasing Liberty or The Princess Diaries. That being said, looking only at the surface misses a hell of a lot. The reason that there are queer movies coming out in the last few years that closely resemble movies that came out years ago is, in part, because we couldn't make movies like this until recently. Because we weren't able to get movies like this widely released before relatively recently, we didn't get to see characters like ourselves meet and fall in love. We didn't get to see rom-coms like this where 2 queer characters go from friends-to-enemies. We didn't get this representation. And that is why this movie, however much it may have adhered to tropes and to well-worn paths. We are finally getting these things that cishet people have gotten for decades and take for granted. When Alex was talking to Henry about why he wanted to go into politics (to make a difference and to show other Latino kids that there was someone like them in power), it spoke to the importance of queer representation too. Seeing people who are like you and seeing them struggling to come out and be accepted shows you that it isn't just you. I also loved that the director was quite firm that this is a "queer love story" not a "gay love story". Even though Henry and Alex are both men, Alex clearly defines himself as being bi, not gay and we need to be sure that we do not erase that.
Once I was able to get past the differences between the book and the movie, I loved the movie. Yes, it was filled with tropes, but (as I've said before multiple times) I love a good romance and don't mind tropes. Watching Henry and Alex go from misunderstanding each other to a grudging friendship to falling in lust to falling in love was all sorts of fun. There were some hilarious lines from every main character and the chemistry between Taylor and Nick was absolutely perfect. Since the movie cut out everything that was not directly related to their love story, without the right actors, this movie would have fallen apart. And they got the right actors here.
Let's start with Alex. Taylor did a great job walking a fine line between being cocky and being obnoxious. Alex has self-confidence and assurance but not so much that he turns into an asshole. Alex is super extroverted and wears his feelings on his sleeve for the most part. There are times where he successfully hides things (generally from the reporter or when he is doing campaign/public stuff), but otherwise he tends to show what he is feeling. When he's in the hospital closet with Henry and explaining where his dislike comes from, it was cute. That was really the first crack in the wall between the two of them. Once Henry knew that his offhand comment about leaving hurt Alex, who felt like Henry could have helped him adjust to public life, the two relaxed a little around each other. And when Henry kissed him at the New Years' party, you could see him looking like a deer in the headlights. He knew what just happened, but he was blindsided and just trying to figure out what to do. And then there was his talk with Nora where he finally put the pieces together. She just laid it all out there for him and he was finally able to put those pieces together. I also loved seeing Alex take more of a direct role in his mom's campaign by going to Texas to implement his ideas. That was fun and gave us a chance to see Henry be sweet and supportive as Alex confused to some feelings that he didn't beling there.
I'm going to skip to near the end, because most stuff in between was about them as a couple, and I want to talk about that separately. What I want to get to here is the outing of Alex and Henry. This was the one part I was dissatisfied with. In the book, there was a clear villain and explanation about why the emails were linked. We also got a chance to see the emails which had a bunch of great queer history and literary references as well as some great nicknames and spicy content. The emails in the movie didn't have that and were much fewer in number. Also, they never revealed who hacked their emails and why. It was insinuated that the reporter was somehow involved, but it was never outright stated. It just feels like they could have worked in a line somewhere to confirm who did hack the emails and their reasoning, which left the storyline just dangling there, which I did not like.
Having said all that, I have to focus on the Politico reporter. Having revealed that the first article came out about 2 and a half hours after the emails were leaked does strongly suggest that he was involved somehow. He saw Henry meet Alex in the hotel bar at the DNC, so he may have suspected something and gone on from there. The fact that he had made out with Alex in a hot tub and has approached him at least two other times to see if Alex wanted to meet again, suggests that he has feelings of some sort for Alex, making me think that he did what he did out of spite or because he felt spurned. And his reasoning for writing all the articles and why the hacking was ok was complete and total bullshit. Yes, Alex is a public figure because of his role in his mother's campaign. But when he said that there was "a pattern of obfuscation around this relationship and it is my job to explain and contextualize it", that was enough to drive me up the wall. That is clearly a justification for shitty behavior and it is one that people have used for years. The only obfuscation was 2 men, who were in love with each other and wanted to not tell the world about it. Why is that anyone else's business? Answer: IT'S NOT! This is all a part of the old idea that a lot of people seem to have where everyone who is queer owes it to the world to come out because otherwise they are lying. And to have this come from a queer journalist (ok, never identified, but the way he was chasing Alex shows he isn't straight) is particularly galling. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, deserves the right to come out when they are ready and to choose how they want to come out, even if they are a public figure. No one every has the right to out another person. EVER. EVER. EVER. Purposefully outing someone is the one thing I find unforgivable. I don't care what a person has done or how big of a public figure they are, everyone has the right to reveal their personal truths when they are ready. Alex's speech after he and Henry are outed was absolutely beautiful. He was clear about what should have happened and why respecting people's privacy is important.
So let's go to Henry now. He is caught in the middle of a Situation and doesn't see a way out until he and Alex fall in love. He is gay and he is a prince. He has a family telling him that he has to fit into an old, antiquated box that is circumscribed by tradition and ideas but he wants to be who he truly is. He wants to be with Alex but can't be with him openly because that just isn't done. So he has walls up and while he lets Alex in, the walls go back up once he realizes that his and Alex's feelings for each other are very serious. Nick did a masterful job at letting us into Henry's inner thoughts through his facial expressions and small mannerisms. If you watch his eyes before he starts to let his guard down, you can catch glimpses of his feelings, particularly his intense feelings for Alex. He lets annoyance and amusement show just a bit in his eyes when he is reacting to some of Alex's more outrageous lines and stunts early on. And at the New Years' party, you can see the hurt and disappointment cross his face when he sees Alex kissing girls when the clock hits midnight and when Alex is dancing with someone else. And when he let his guard down in Paris when he suggested that he and Alex make love, you saw the love and the passion that he had for Alex. That and the fight when Alex came to England to get him back were Henry at his most vulnerable and it was lovely to see. When the emails were leaked, you saw him just be devastated, particularly when he couldn't talk with Alex. And when he got the phone from Shaan to get the phone, you saw the trepidation and fear on his face about who it might be. When he heard Alex say "Baby?", you saw him visibly relax and go right back to being vulnerable and in love. The change was quite remarkable. And I loved it when he stood up to the King. It took him seeing that the King was wrong and seeing the crowds to really stiffen his spine, but he was resisting even before that. He just needed the public support to be really able to successfully resist what the King wanted.
As for them as a couple, it was such a lovely progression. When they kissed in the Red Room to hooking up in Alex's room to hooking up at the polo match to Paris, you got to see them go from an almost animalistic lust and need for sex to something much deeper. When we saw them kiss before Paris, it was just absolutely lust and not a whole lot else. They just went at each other with a ferocity that was really, really hot. And there wasn't a lot of foreplay, they went right from kissing to giving each other blowjobs. Nothing romantic, just wanting sex. There's nothing wrong with that, and it is a very logical first step to where they were headed. Once they spent more time together, the night in Paris was quite romantic. First, Henry suggesting that they make love and Alex gently teasing him for saying that and then admitting that he didn't know how to make love with another guy. And the joke from Henry about Alex being in good hands because Henry went to an English boarding school was quite funny, but didn't break the mood, which I really appreciated. Watching the two of them gently undress each other, slowly kiss each other, and then caress each other before having sex was so beautiful. It was just like a sex scene you might see in a straight romance, which I appreciated. And when Alex penetrated Henry, the look on Nick's race was pretty realistic, assuming you're someone who likes bottoming. You could tell from his face the moment Alex entered him because he got a look of wonder and enjoyment. The whole thing was romantic and just perfect.
One of the greatest scenes was in the hotel when Zahra caught Henry in the closet. Aside from the sheer and utter hilarity of finding a gay man in a closet, watching her realize what is going on and then trying to figure out how to deal with it was funny. She realized that they weren't going to stay apart, but she also needed to figure out how to not damage the presidential campaign. The commentary throughout the whole movie about the homophobia that runs rampant in society was not terribly subtle. If Henry or Alex had been a woman, the whole thing would have easily explained and no one would have blinked an eye. But the fact that they are both men was what caused the problem. And that is just ridiculous and is absolute homophobia. That's why they felt like they had to hide things and why the reporter was able to "justify" talking about their emails. If there wasn't rampant homophobia in society and they were able to just be who they are, there would have been no need for secrets.
I also loved all the scenes between Alex and his mom. Uma played a no-nonsense woman who was (for the most part) able to clearly delineate between her maternal duties and her official duties. The one time where things got a bit blurry was in connection to the Texas strategy Alex devised and that was because she wasn't told about it and Alex felt super passionate about the whole thing. But other than that, she was able to be supportive when Alex needed her. When Alex told her that he met someone and it could impact the campaign, she had a great line wondering if she was a Republican. Not fond of the assumption of straightness there, but I think it was understandable because Alex didn't seem to have really had any public indications that he had feeling for any men before this. When he said it was Henry, I loved that she sat for a minute as that statement hit her and then immediately got pizza so they could talk. I do wish we had gotten the PowerPoint presentation that was in the book and the line about not having had time was not the best explanation. I also loved that she went all mom and made sure he was being safe. It embarrassed Alex, but was totally cute.
Most everyone else had pretty minor roles. Alex's dad was supportive and didn't blink an eye when he found out Henry and Alex were together. Nora was supportive and helped Alex when he needed emotional support when trying to figure out Henry (a role she got because June was cut out of the movie). Bea filled a similar support role for Henry while his brother and grandfather were just homophobic and not at all supportive.
I loved all the lovely emotional scenes between Henry and Alex, particularly the scene in the museum. The scene preceding that, when they fought, showed Henry at his most vulnerable. He was really unsure about how to proceed given the fact that he had reached a fork in the road where his duties and his desires seemed to be at war with each other. What he needed was a new paradigm that would allow him to be in love with Alex while also being a prince. The museum scene was when Henry finally let all the walls fall down and let Alex completely in. When he was explaining how he loved to just disappear among the statues and how he wanted to dance with the man he loved while in the museum, you could see him absolutely just do everything he could to let Alex in. And when they danced? I cried happy tears because it was so beautiful.
I also kept cackling at the sexual innuendo between the two of them or the visual puns in the movie in general. When they were walking back into the dinner after making out in the Red Room, their conversation about henry being hard (and the shot of the extremely phallic Washington Monument) was hilarious. And then there was the scene in Paris where Henry revealed his full name and Alex said that he thought "Alex Gabriel Claremont-Diaz was a mouthful." Henry's response ("He is.") said completely deadpan and followed by a mischievous glance was absolutely hilarious. Their delivery of these lines just really helped them land.
I also loved the scene where Henry and Alex were talking on the phone when Alex had the turkey in his room. When we saw the two of them together on Alex's bed facing each other, it was really cute. I also adored the text exchanges, especially when you saw Henry appear on the screen to deliver his lines.
And I would be remiss to not talk about the very beginning which culminated in CakeGate. It was so different from the picture I had in my brain from reading the book, but that is ok. Watching an increasingly drunk Alex confronting an annoyed Henry, you would have known disaster was coming even if you knew almost nothing about the movie. And when the cake fell in slow motion and we got a look at all the individual faces? Priceless.
Now for a couple of things I would change. First, I would have preferred an 8 to 10-episode limited series because that would have given us the chance to have more characters from the book and would also have allowed all the other characters a bit more of a chance to develop. I do get that trying to turn a 421 page book into a 2-hour movie is impossible without making a ton of cuts is impossible, but I wonder if making the choice to do a 2-hour movie was the right choice. Second, as I said above, I would have preferred closure on the who question about who hacked the emails and why. Third, I so wanted to see the PowerPoint presentation about the geopolitical ramifications of dating a prince. That would have just been hilarious. And finally, there was a scene in the trailer of Alex and Henry in a kitchen eating that didn't make it into the movie. I hate it when studios do that. If a scene isn't in a movie, don't put it in the trailer or anything. I was looking for that scene and it just never showed and that annoyed me.
To sum up, I do really love this movie. For me to enjoy it, I needed to be able to separate it from the book, but once I was able to do so, I found that it was charming and absolutely lovely. There were a few things that annoyed me, but for the most part I loved it. Seen it twice already and plan to watch it at least once or twice a week for at least the next month or so.
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