Some Thoughts About The Idea Of You

I've seen The Idea of You twice since it came out. Normally, I am not interested in cishet romances because they are a dime a dozen. Every time I turn around, I am running into a new one. They're nice, but they don't speak to me personally as a queer person. So, I tend to watch queer romances and I enjoy them a lot more.

My main exception to this rule is The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2 with Anne Hathaway. I see them as a trans story, which helps my enjoyment. Add to that the fact that I love Anne Hathaway and that these are (IMNSHO) the perfect romances, and I will gladly watch them. The other, more recent, exception is cishet romances with Nicholas Galitizine. I've watched every movie he's been in (still have 2 TV shows to watch at some point) and have enjoyed him in every one. There were one or two that I didn't like, but those weren't about him, they were about the story or the other actors. So when I heard there was a movie where these two were the romantic leads, I was instantly intrigued and decided to watch it.

I did read the book after I watched the movie and I have to say that I was not impressed. It wasn't a bad book, in fact it was in many respects a fairly standard romance (albeit with a non-traditional ending) with lots of fairly descriptive sex scenes. I was hoping that my love of Nicholas and Anne would translate to a love of the book, but that didn't happen at all. I finished the book and will probably never read it again. I will continue to watch the movie though, not as many times as Red, White, and Royal Blue, but a few times a year.

Ok, now that we've got the preliminaries out of the way, let's talk about what I loved about the movie. Anne and Nicholas have amazing chemistry. Watching the two of them together was absolutely electric. Bothe of them can communicate a lot with just a look and they've both mastered the art of tearing up on a moment's notice, so watching the two of them play off of each other was just fun. As Solene, Anne was in her best form showing shades of Mia with her awkwardness and her spine of steel that she can draw on. And as Hayes, Nicholas showed his mettle with the warmness and empathy of Henry while also showing some real playfulness and a desire to get what he wants.

I will say that the desire to get what he wants was a little offputting the first time they kissed in Solene's house. She said and indicated a certain level of discomfort with the kissing and he kept on pressing forward. I'm not going to say that it rose to eh level of assault, but it definitely made me uncomfortable because he wasn't respecting what she was saying until she physically pushed him away. I know this is a romantic trope, but it is one that I am not fond of and that makes me uncomfortable.

I appreciated how the movie showed the difficulties Solene was facing as a 40-year-old woman in a relationship with a 24-year-old guy. Watching the difficulties she was facing, I got really upset because of the complete and utter sexism and misogyny. If the situations were reversed and she was a 40-year-old man in a relationship with a 24-year-old woman, then people would be cheering him on and talking about how it showed how virile and desirable he is. But because Solene is a woman, most people act like this is the worst thing ever. To his credit, Hayes calls out this disparity when Solene brings in up in a fight when she is getting ready to leave France alone.  I will say that at the point where they have this fight, their relationship isn't public, so most of the issues are there because Solene knows how people will react and because Hayes' friends are not treating her very well. 

When they get back together and their relationship goes public, the misogyny that Solene feared shows itself in full force. The comments and headlines that we see are truly awful. They say that she is a bad mom because she's dating Hayes. People are coming up to her and telling her that their' little girls, who had a crush on Hayes were heartbroken. Sorry, but this is the stupidest thing to say. I mean, I'm sorry that your child who had a crush on a man was hurt, but to blame Solene for that is the most ridiculous thing ever. And her ex-husband was the absolute worst. He cheated on her, then divorced her and married the woman he cheated on her with. And he has the audacity to think that he has any right to talk with her about her entirely appropriate relationship with Hayes? He had one good point in that the whole thing was negatively impacting their daughter Izzy, but the way he just came at her and the way he acted as if he had any sort of leg to stand on was infuriating.

And Izzy is the reason the two of them broke up. Not that Izzy asked her mom to break up with Hayes, but all of the attention and awfulness was too much for her to handle. She had students at her school asking for a pic of Hayes' dick. And a guy she likes asked her to tell Solene that he turned 18 in a month. Yes, it may be typical high school stuff, but it was beyond awful too. So I can't blame Solene for stepping away from the relationship at that point. Yes, he made her happy and she made him happy, but the negative impacts on Izzy were too much for Solene to deal with.

I loved the fact that they changed the ending from what it was in the book. In the book, Solene and Hayes break up and remain broken up. In the movie, after she breaks up with him, he goes to her house where they kiss one last time and he asks her to reconsider her decision in 5 years after Izzy is out of college. She agrees, but insists that if either of them find something before then that they take it. So 5 years later, Hayes is now a solo act and visits her art gallery and they seem to be getting back together. I get that some people may prefer the books ending because it is a commentary on women being expected to give everything up for people around them. But I preferred the movie because it said that while women may be asked to (or need to) give something up now, it doesn't mean that they need to give it up forever. And it demonstrates that love is not something that can just be denied, it will wait as needed. Yes, I'm a sap. Deal with it.

In addition to both of their acting, I love Nicholas' voice. He has a gorgeous singing voice and the songs August Moon and Hayes Campbell sang were quite fun and enjoyable. I've had "Guard Down", "Taste", and "Dance Before We Walk" going through my head off and on since I saw the movie. Yeah, super catchy.

So that's it. I will be talking about the movie on my podcast Queerly Popular on a special episode on Thursday, June 27th. I'll go more in depth on the plot and expand on what I've written here. Check it out if you enjoy my thoughts.

Some Thoughts About the Red, White, and Royal Blue Sequel

 I woke up this morning to a tweet that there was going to be a sequel to Red, White, and Royal Blue. At first, I thought it was someone online playing a joke or doing wishful thinking, but as I looked briefly and found this article which confirmed that the sequel was in fact happening. Here is what we know for sure:

[1] Matthew Lopez and Casey McQuiston are writing the script.

[2] Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez are returning as Henry and Alex

And that's it. I have some thoughts and wanted to put them out there. First, I want to talk about a couple of plot possibilities. Then I want to look at some things I do or do not want to see in the sequel.

First, the plot. I really see two probable plots.

The first probable plot is that the movie follow Alex and Henry through their courtship and ends with their getting married. If they do this, they can incorporate the bonus chapter that Casey appended to the collector's edition of RWRB that came out in 2022. As a dramatic arc, they can have Henry and Alex learning how to navigate a public relationship when Alex wants to be in the public eye in order to get involved in politics and Henry very much does not want that. I think that would be fun to watch. They could have Henry abdicate, very much like he does in the bonus chapter, and have him run the queer youth shelters, again like he plans on doing in the book. It wouldn't be hard to have a brief bit of exposition that Percy signed over shelters for Henry to run shortly after the first movie.

The second probable plot is that Alex and Henry are already married and we get to watch them adjust to life as husbands. I find this one to be a bit less likely, because I think people would rise up in revolt if we don't get to see the FirstPrince wedding. Presumably, at this point, they would have learned how to live together and how to navigate their differences, so I'm not sure where the drama would come from here, unless they do some sort of artificially created drama, which would annoy me no end. I see this as the less likely possibility.

So now for things I do and do not want to see.

First thing that I have to say here is that I am a little apprehensive about doing a sequel. The fact that Casey and Matthew are writing it allay a lot of my fears, but I really don't want there to be a sequel just to have a sequel. I know Casey has said something similar in the past (at least about the book) and that FirstPrince is their baby, so the fact that they are involved in writing the sequel gives me hope. I really just want them to take the time to write a sequel worthy of the original and respectful of the fans. 

I do not want there to be artificially created drama like a love triangle or someone trying to get between them. That would just be annoying and stupid. The first movie revolved around Alex realizing he's bi and then he and Henry trying to figure out how to have a relationship as public figures. The drama all felt natural and unforced. If they throw in an old, dead trope like a love triangle or something, it will completely ruin their relationship. There has to be drama in order to have a movie, but the drama should center around the two of them trying to figure out how to live together and make their dreams work together.  We don't need soap opera or teen drama style storylines, just the everyday life of a power couple.

I want them to address the one question that the original never answered: did Miguel Ramos hack the emails or was he just notified about the hack? It is suggested that he was involved, but never answered. Again, this is something that could be addressed very quickly in some exposition.

I think they need to address what Henry does regarding his royal duties. We know that he does not like being in the public eye the way he has been and that he wants to be more of a private person. Given that and given Alex's stated desire to get involved in politics, I really see navigating this as the best possible plot for the sequel. It doesn't have to be (and should not be) a bunch of huge arguments, but rather a series of discussions about the boundaries of each of them and how they can work together without creating big issues between them. Again, nothing artificial or heightened, just normal relationship stuff that the two of them need to work out. Any heightened drama could be related to their wedding, which (given their stations and their families) could be quite amusing and fun. And it would be great to watch Uma Thurman and Stephen Fry butt heads.

Honestly, that's all I have right now. I expect the movie will be out in late 2025 at the earliest, but 2026 is more likely. It depends on how much has been written. There shouldn't need to be a ton of casting, so that should shorten up the timeframe somewhat.