Streaming Review: The Prince & The President's Progeny Perspire & Prime Heats Up As RED, WHITE, & ROYAL BLUE Steams & Streams On AmazonPrime

Welcome to another installment of Little Bobby’s thoughts on some streaming Entertainment coming to you this time from the fab children at AmazonPrime!  So jump in the stream with us, and let’s see if our rainbow lands on a pot of gold.

Let’s face it Bobby Readers, that blurb above accompanies each of our reviews because cut and paste is our friend. But let us say right up front that Bobby’s rainbow did INDEED land on a pot of gold when the powers that be assigned Prime’s RED, WHITE, & ROYAL BLUE as our next streaming content review. TBH my lambs, we knew 100% a couple of months ago, when the trailer hit the YouTubes, that this was a film we wanted to see. The fact that it became an assignment we could write about just enhanced our initial excitement for this Gay RomCom and the representation it promised. Well this gem, written and directed by Tony Award® winning playwright Matthew López (nephew of Tony Award® winning triple threat Priscilla López), not only lived up to its trailer’s promise, it far exceeded it. Now, Bobby is just as gay as the next gay and could wax on and wax off soporific about how handsome the two leads are, and indeed Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez, as the prince and the president’s son, respectively, are devastatingly so, but they are also fine actors whose chemistry and gifted performances as the battling brats falling hopelessly in love are the life and breath within López’s story and his lens. The script crackles nicely with its mix of Brit wit and American Snarkasm, as the two boys banter and then blush in each other’s presence…
 

Based on the best-selling book of the same title by Casey McQuiston, RW&RB is an R-Rated Comedy (for language, sexual content, nudity, and all the other things) that still manages to remain, by and large, quite wholesome and sweet, without ever becoming overly twee. The scenes of romance and love-making between Prince Henry and First Son Alex are all openly filmed and performed without coyness - even the actors’ tongue-free stage kissing is hot, and while these scenes are all explicit, they are so without being graphic or vulgar. Director Lopez (with his Director of Photography, Stephen Goldblatt) composes exquisite shots throughout (especially of their two leads) that are as essential to the action as the words on the page, telling as much of the story, visually, as possible, until dialogue becomes necessary. The uber-fun script moves pretty quickly through the couple falling for each other and going to bed because the obstacles to their falling in love are not the story objects, so much as the obstacles to their BEING in love. Lopez and co-writer Ted Malawer deftly shine their light and lenses on the homophobic British Royal fishbowl that Prince Henry must live in, despite being, as he says, “Gay as a maypole.” The same is essentially true for the admittedly bi-sexual Alex, whose “Being low-key into guys,” is not as big an issue for his open-minded and supportive first female US President mom (played by the marvelous movie star, Uma Thurman), as are his wild public acts that create international incidents - like toppling over the wedding cake at the Prince Royal’s wedding. It is the script that shines the most in this sparkling comedy. Lopez and Malawer trim the fat of the usual embattled near misses and wash, rinse, repeat of RomComs, down to the basics with pithy Noel Coward-ish dialogue that is as sexy as the actual romantic bits, thereby compressing time and story into an economical boy meets boy, boy gets boy scenario. Then, it is the world that impinges on the loving couple… actually two worlds, and Alex and Henry must find a way to love each other in defiance of systems and politics. The cast around our central pair is terrific support, as well, with Uma Thurman’s star power and charisma as US President Ellen Claremont adding equal amounts of gravitas and heart to the proceedings, and while her Texas accent occasionally drawls when it should twang, her depth of character work prevails in all her scenes (Bobby’s from Texas, so Bobby knows).  Rachel Hilson, as Alex's bestie and daughter of the Veep, Nora, is having fun in a snarky side-kick role and Ellie Bamber makes the most of an underwritten but stalwart royal sister to Prince Henry. It is, however, the ever-vibrant Sarah Shahi as the harried POTUS Chief of Staff, Zahra Bankston, that handles the heaviest comedy load, and, as usual, she does so wonderfully.
 

The world that RW&RB creates is one of diversity, where a woman can become President, her Latin heritage husband can be a Texas congressman, and her mixed-race son can be invited to Buckingham Palace for a royal wedding. It is idyllic in its idealism and, so, makes the romance comedy formula feel fresher than it would in an all straight & white world. The inclusion of a bi-sexual man falling in love with a gay one also plays into this idyll of inclusion where the B in LGBTQIA+ is not derided as faux gay or straight with tendencies. It is what it is because Alex is who he is. Finally, there are the performances of our two heroes… Galitzine & Perez have palpable chemistry together. Their looks at each other, their furtive touches, and even their early brat battles crackle with sparks of desire. Regardless of what these actors’ private sexuality may be, they play two men who want each other in ways that stop the breath. They are beautiful to look at and beautiful to watch in their acting craft. The American Perez has a voice that melts hearts and the British Galitzine’s is…well… British. One could imagine these two taking to the stage in rep, trading off the roles of Romeo & Mercutio, Hamlet & Laertes, night by night, they are that good and that good together.

So, in all, dear Bobby readers, RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE is the fairytale we all need right about now, to lift our hearts and make us laugh a bit before the American election season gets fully and drudgingly underway. The script is first-rate RomCom fare, the filming is fabulous, and the boys are dreamy - so what’s not to love? In fact, there aren’t enough rainbows in Bobby’s heaven for RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE, but 5 is the limit and so this one gets…

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows

If You’re NOT A Prime Member, This Film Is A Good Reason To Join.  HERE

All Credits For RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE  Available On IMDB: HERE

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