Red, White & Royal Blue
Matthew López, the director of “Red, White & Royal Blue,” does an excellent job in his first feature film. A love story that combines the common tropes of a classic movie romance with the unique aspects of two very famous young men who want to hide their relationship from the public eye. this film is based on a best-selling novel by Casey McQuiston about an American president’s son and a British prince. They both desire confidentiality for themselves but care even more about shielding their families from scandalous situations.
We have the part we go to in movies, were initial hostility turns to grudging respect, then some flirty banter, and then a growing realization that they’re deeply in love. Alex Clarmont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez) is the son of President Ellen Clarmont (Uma Thurman) and Congressman Oscar Diaz (Clifton Collins Jr.). He loves politics but is always stuck with ceremonial duties like escorting Nora the granddaughter of the US Vice President (a marvelous Rachel Hilson) to the wedding of England’s next-in-line prince. It’s such a photo-op of an event that he doesn’t even care to lay eyes on the groom’s brother, Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), right now. We’ll find out why they hate each other later.
They get into an embarrassing mess (literally) at the wedding reception. In terms of international relations, it seems important that the world knows these two young men are great friends. It’s classic rom-com set-up stuff just more ambitious than usual this time around. López and his talented cast nimbly shift gears from nearly slapstick comedy to almost heartbreaking drama.
It’s a refreshingly diverse cast; there’s an understated, almost casual, natural sense of this just being the world these characters live in. Each supporting character is comfortable with who they are, they don’t feel like they need to mute their accents or otherwise “blend in.” It becomes a plot point handled so delicately you could balance a coffee cup on it when Alex interacts with a Hispanic reporter always looking for an edge, we see it most clearly in how she speaks to Alex in Spanish assuming a kinship and intimacy that he parries uncomfortably. Collins is terrific as always, here playing Oscar as showing his son he supports his love for Henry; Oscar briefly references their own challenges against skeptical people who didn’t think he and Ellen would work out because they’re from different cultures.
These small but careful touches are what give what could otherwise be a glossy but bland Hallmark-style film some texture; López’s background in musical theater gives him a good sense of the rhythm of storytelling. A New Year’s Eve party scene is cut with wit and style by Kristina Hetherington and Nick Moore. And a scene when the still-antagonistic couple finds themselves stuck in a literal closet is just the right mix of claustrophobic discomfort, dawning attraction, and most surprising to them both growing mutual respect.
The movie admirably lets its racially, culturally, nationally diverse characters bypass the code switching that real-life and fictional characters often do to make those around them more comfortable. In that spirit, it grants Alex and Henry frankness in depicting their relationship including their sexual relationship, which is explicit but portrayed with respect for its increasing intimacy. Alex is bisexual. Henry is gay. They both struggle with what that means for their very public families, but they know who they are; when they let themselves, they know what they want for their lives together.
But it’s still a fairy tale, there are plot contrivances here that are just too convenient. However, the shimmering sweetness between Perez and Galitzine supports plenty of willingly suspended disbelief. That’s what happily ever after is all about.
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