Queer Romance From The White House To Buckingham Palace
In the first half of the film, it feels as though the actors are being let down by the script. There's tons of goofy dialogue (what can we say about a character telling Alex two minutes into the film that he's "yucking her yum" as he grumbles about attending the royal wedding?) and clumsy exposition. "Red, White & Royal Blue" works really hard to get us into position for the eventual romance, and you can see all the wheels turning throughout, as it employs every cheap rom-com cliche in the book. The snarky dialogue the two exchange is painful — and a little unbelievable, considering that a main plot point is the fact that they're required to wear masks in public but can't seem to keep it together when they're around one person they've met a handful of times and mildly dislike. You can see the actors doing their best but struggling to land some of the film's more leaden lines. The dialogue in the first half prevents it from rising above the standard romances on Hallmark or Lifetime when this feels like it deserves to be more than that.
But Perez and Galitzine keep the film alive through sheer force of willpower and charm, and by the time "Red, White & Royal Blue" leaves its meet-cute era, things are on much firmer ground. The actual narrative is undeniably compelling, even if the dialogue doesn't always live up to it, and it deals sensitively with the very different issues that both men face in this relationship. For Alex, the privacy of their relationship is key in the short term: He doesn't want to rock the boat before his mother's historic reelection campaign. But for Henry, not letting the truth about his sexuality become public is a matter of survival. We're all aware of the pressure the British royal family can exert on its less "traditional" members, and Galitzine plays Henry as a wounded deer constantly terrified that someone will discover his secret. The first time he kisses Alex, the look that follows isn't one of excitement, but abject horror — what has he done?
