"Red, White & Royal Blue" charms and swoons with likable, sexy leads

Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)

If the straights got “The Prince & Me,” “Chasing Liberty,” and “First Daughter”—all frothy 2004 romantic comedies either involving royalty or First Children—queer audiences now get “Red, White & Royal Blue,” the big-screen treatment of Casey McQuiston’s 2019 novel. The hate-at-first-sight romance between the female American President’s son and a British heir has developed quite a fervent fan base, and based on writer-director Matthew Lopez and co-writer Ted Malawer’s pleasant, swoon-worthy screen adaptation, it’s easy to see why. 

A modern-day fairy tale of sorts but still set in a recognizable reality with politics, “Red, White & Royal Blue” starts with the trappings of a burgeoning Hallmark romance. First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of Madam President Claremont (Uma Thurman), is a law student at Georgetown but something of a party animal. Across the pond, Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) is a little stuffy, but he’s under a lot of pressure. It’s night and day for Alex and Henry, who dismiss each other, but only at first. After a royal wedding “cake-tastrophe” at Buckingham Palace between these two young men makes the tabloids, they must shake hands like they’ve been best mates all along on a pardon tour of photo ops and interviews. Their transatlantic correspondence and visits will grow more and more intimate, until the closeted Henry actually kisses Alex. Because they’re both public figures, this relationship can’t get out, especially not to the press. Will this relationship be forever? Is it getting hot in here?

Taylor Zakhar Perez ("The Kissing Booth 2") and Nicholas Galitzine ("Cinderella") are wonderful together and share palpable, crazy-sexy chemistry. On their own, Perez is likable and charismatic as hell (and extremely easy on the eyes), while the equally handsome Galitzine gets to tap into Henry’s inner emotional turmoil, particularly when the two share what should be a pivotal moment on a lake raft. Uma Thurman commits to the Texan drawl as President Ellen Claremont, and later scenes that Thurman and a refreshingly against-type Clifton Collins Jr., as Congressman and First Husband Oscar Diaz, each share with Perez’s Alex are not idealistic but honest, affecting, and funny. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: B

Amazon Studios released "Red, White & Royal Blue" (112 min.) on Prime Video on August 11, 2023.