by Anne-Louise Fortune
Red, White & Royal Blue is the eagerly anticipated film adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s 2019 New York Times best-selling, cult Young Adult novel. The plot, for anyone who has managed to avoid the online enthusiasm of the story’s legion of fans, is, on the surface at least, fairly straightforward. Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez, The Kissing Booth 2 & 3) is the son of Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman, Pulp Fiction), the first female President of the United States of America. Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine, The Craft: Legacy) is the grandson of the British monarch, and in the line of succession to the throne.
Alex hates Henry with a passion, after a perceived snub during their first meeting, but after Alex causes an international political scandal at the Royal Wedding of Prince Philip (Henry’s older brother), a PR campaign to rescue the political relationship between the US and UK throws Alex and Henry together, and a tentative friendship develops. If you’re familiar with the YA genre, you’ll not be surprised to learn that, whilst Alex’s mom / President Ellen is running her campaign to be re-elected, Alex and Henry go from enemies, to friends, to passionate lovers, engaging in a relationship which must remain secret. Hilarity, and an exceptionally heartfelt e-mail-based correspondence ensue.
Adapting a novel which has such a significant epistolary element is always going to be difficult, and writer/director Matthew Lopez (The Newsroom) makes a strong attempt to translate the essence of the correspondence to the screen. This is most successful when Alex and Henry’s early texts and DMs to each other are realised visually, and in clever techniques allowing the characters to occupy the same filmic space, but their character’s own personal spheres. It’s weakest when attempting to convey the contents some of the 72 emails that form the bulk of the second act of the original novel, most of which never make it to the screen.
This is a problem because the content of those emails should help the audience to understand Henry’s internal struggles. As it is, we don’t even get enough of a sense of how frequently Henry and Alex are communicating with each other and this makes what should be one of the dramatic high points of the second act of the film fall much flatter than it should. It feels like the restrictions of time have led to much of this second-act material being erased, and an extra 20 minutes or so added to the running time, and some creative care with the presentation of the content of the emails, would have allowed us to understand Henry’s turmoil much more effectively.
The original novel was jam-packed with secondary characters and references to US politics that could seem bewildering to readers not familiar with the intricacies of the US election cycle. Much of this has been toned down for this film, with the bulk of the political narrative focusing on Alex’s attempts to recruit new voters in his home state of Texas. Similarly, Henry’s position in the Royal Family has now been adjusted, to make his desire to live as an out gay man more problematic for King James III (Stephen Fry, The Sandman). Fry is surprisingly measured as the monarch finding that his desperate desire to just ignore Henry’s queerness is unacceptable – to both Henry, and the British public.
White House Chief of Staff Zahra (Sarah Shahi, Black Adam) has similarly had her role reduced. However, the scenes she is present for, Shahi absolutely owns, delivering her lines with speed, ferocity, and a clear understanding of the importance of timing in comedy. Most of the film’s funniest lines are hers, and she delivers them with all the relish of a woman who has seen too much, and who is far too tired for this nonsense.
The film is strongest when it steps away from the fan-service and book references, and instead merely uses the framework of key scenes from the novel to tell its own version of the overall narrative. The dialogue between Henry and Alex, very little of which is directly transferred, sizzles and bites, in the manner of the classic Hollywood movies of the post-WW2 period. The chemistry between Galitzine and Perez crackles off the screen.
It is also exceptionally refreshing to witness queer men joyfully embracing their sexuality, without angst, or a character’s death ensuing. In particular, one scene has every hallmark of romance that every ‘straight’ rom-com of the 1990s was able to deliver in spades, but which has been curiously absent from many queer equivalents.
Whilst die-hard fans of the novel may be disappointed that not every iconic moment has made it to the screen, they should hopefully be pleased with those that have. The infamous Cake Scene is an early moment that serves to confirm that the adaptation is in good hands with Lopez and co-writer Ted Malawar (Fallen). The story still makes sense even if you have not read the book, although you may have to engage in some very careful listening as backstories whizz past in the briefest of mentions to understand who everyone is, and what the personal and political stakes are for those characters.
Lopez’s decision to use Henry as a representative for anyone who cannot, or does not want to be ‘out’ to the world is an inspired decision, and Alex’s speech from the podium in the west wing of the White House conveying the need for Queer Liberation, are both choices which make this movie vital as a piece of queer story-telling, in a world which is currently seeking to repeal and repress queer rights in ever more worrying ways. Many elements of the novel may have ended up on the editing room floor, but its unabashed celebration of queer love, in all its variety, remains.
Although being informally rated ‘12’ in the UK, this film has been given an informal ‘R’ rating in the US, roughly equivalent to a ‘15’ in the UK. This is almost certainly because of the number of scenes which reflect the passion between Alex and Henry, which the novel is known for. Caution may be advised for the younger teenage viewer – but to be blunt, your older teenage daughter has probably already read the book, and possibly even read fanfic based on the characters.
This is a funny, warm adaptation of a beloved novel, and the chemistry between the leads makes us root for them from the beginning. Perhaps harder to follow for non-devotees, there is still much to enjoy here for the casual viewer of romantic movies where two idiots fall in love. A blast of fun and warmth, and tenderly romantic, as the film’s tagline confirms: ‘true love isn’t always diplomatic’.
RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE will premiere globally on August 11th, exclusively on Prime Video.
