You might not have liked Nicholas Galitzine’s Red, White & Royal Blue but the Prime Video queer romance is one of 2023’s best romance comedies of the year.
Shout-out to You People!
The rom-com starring Taylor Zakhar Perez as Alex Claremont-Diaz and Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Henry made its highly anticipated debut on Amazon Prime on August 11, 2023, and in a matter of days, skyrocketed to become the streaming platform’s Top 3 Most-watched Romantic Comedies of all time.
For 72 hours, the whole world was gushing over for the boys of Red, White & Royal Blue and Prime Video announced that it had experienced “a huge surge” in new subscribers, which isn’t surprising because I signed up too.
On August 16, just five days after its premiere, the American streaming giant Prime Video declared that Red, White & Royal Blue had become its #1 movie worldwide.
So four months after the release of the queer rom-com Red, White & Royal Blue, what have we learnt?
The Classic Enemies-Turned-Lovers Trope is Still Appealing
Prime Video’s Red, White & Royal Blue was a romantic comedy adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Casey McQuinton’s novel of same name released in 2019.
The rom-com centered around the classic storyline of foes-turned-lovers as Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of the U.S. president fell for the stunning looks of Britain’s Prince Henry, despite their initial total disdain for each other that ended in a public transatlantic altercation off the front news pages and into a giant £75,000 cake.
What began as a fake Instagram friendship between the pair easily blossomed into the steamy relationship associated with roaring 16 year olds ‘finding love’ for the first time as Instagram messages slowly metamorphosed into love messages, love messages into heated glances, glances into intense feelings, and finally consolidated in a sizzling, hot sex scene.
Unsurprisingly, the movie failed to receive the best reviews as the ‘prime ministers’ of movies and TV shows, the ever-present critics, branded the film as “bland”, a “royal disappointment,” and a “summer fling best forgotten.”
Red, White & Royal Blue nonetheless had a shallow plot with lots of time jumps and failed to live up to the gold standards of its novel which remains the cornerstone for gay romance today.
But despite crashing the fevered anticipations of many with troves of far-from-impressive reviews, the reception it received from untapped audiences with a positive score of 94 percent proved that like the days of Pride And Prejudice, the classic enemies-to-lovers trope, when rightly spun, still appeals strongly.