2023
·121m
Red, White & Royal Blue
Summary
After an altercation between Alex, the president's son, and Britain's Prince Henry at a royal event becomes tabloid fodder, their long-running feud now threatens to drive a wedge in U.S./British relations. When the rivals are forced into a staged truce, their icy relationship begins to thaw and the friction between them sparks something deeper than they ever expected.
Reviews
Geronimo1967
August 14, 2023
Right, I am not the demographic and I ought to have hated this. Not least because it starts off with one of my lazy cinema writing bête noires - the "King of England". There is no such title or person! Anyway, pretty swiftly we find ourselves watching an overly contrived cake incident that must have trashed the expensive shag pile at Buckingham Palace. The visiting son of the US President - "Alex" (Taylor Zakhar Perez) gets involved in an altercation with Prince “Henry”, the grandson of the King. A week later he is despatched by his mother (Uma Thurman) on a diplomatic rescue mission ahead of her looming re-election battle and negotiations for a trade deal. What now ensues is way better than I was expecting. It's a simple enough bromance/rom-com but it uses adult language and some decent writing to illustrate a courtship that benefits from two actors who actually appear to gel on screen. It does no harm that Perez is very easy on the eye and is quite charismatic - though, surely just a bit too old for school - and both men offer an assured and confident performance that avoids the worst of the sentimental pitfalls - even if we do still get a polo match. As it builds I rather surprisingly found myself engaged with the story. Sure, it's light and fluffy, but somehow it's very normalisation of a gay relationship between two of the world's (theoretical) A-listers is actually quite warm and funny. The budget must have gone on private jets, luxury hotel suites and a couple of his and his powder blue hoodies - and that left the poor newsreader to do an entire Presidential election campaign wearing the same top! Perhaps it is meant to be some sort of play on the search for purpose by a real Prince, but that doesn't matter. Don't look for depth or realism (it has none) but if you are looking for something just a bit quirkier and entertaining then read the tin first, then you might get a surprise. I did. (PS: Anyone else think the Parisian café scene is a re-shoot?)
