Red, White, and Royal Blue has been quite the anticipated movie for a while, and rightfully so, because, after the two hours of its runtime, we were left with only smiles. We wish blessings for the gods of Booktok who made Red, White, and Royal Blue, go viral, which snowballed into this movie that has graced our screens. There are not many movies out there that make you want to read the book because you can’t get enough of the couple, but this colorful movie ranks high from recent times. We will be judging the movie on its own, without any reference to the book. However, just for fun, we would like to point out that in the book, Alex is shorter than Henry by a good four inches. We said this because it was a joke in the movie that Alex and Henry are the same height, but we believe that Taylor Zakhar Perez, who plays Alex, is a bit taller. It’s a funny detail that we enjoyed, and you can too while going through the summary of Red, White, and Royal Blue.
Spoiler Alert
How Do Alex And Henry Fall In Love?
It is Prince Philip’s wedding, and Alex and Henry do not get along well at all. The reason for this that Alex tells Nora is that he doesn’t like the comparison between him and Henry that the media makes. Alex is often referred to as the American Henry, and that rubs him the wrong way because he is “far nicer and more charming.” At the reception, after Henry gives Alex an “etiquette lesson” and the latter accidentally gets cake on him, a little annoyance leads to a slight push and pull that topples the cake worth 75,000 pounds (cost, not weight) on both of them. This causes an international media spectacle that spins the narrative that Alex and Henry hated each other’s guts at the wedding and that this is a result of their altercation.
To set things right, Alex and Henry are forced to spend a weekend with each other, where they will be photographed while acting like friends who have inexpressible amounts of love for one another. Having no choice, they act true to the brief until a few moments alone force the confrontation out of them. Alex has not liked Henry since the first time he saw him because he was a bit rude to him that day. It was Alex’s first public appearance, and that is why he has been extra sensitive about it since. Henry apologizes to Alex and admits that he had been behaving like that with everyone for a few months at that time since it was around when his father had passed away. Alex and Henry bury the hatchet, and they leave the weekend being genuine friends with each other.
What follows are months of texting, and Henry uses brighter emojis than jokes. These two meet again at the New Year’s party, and we suppose Henry had realized his feelings a lot before Alex had, because he is the one who ends up making the first move, and to his surprise, Alex responds. However, there is radio silence after that for days, since Alex is still processing his feelings, and Henry doesn’t know what the boy he kissed might be thinking about it. But all doubts are put to rest when they meet at the next party and are really together from then on.
The love story goes from these trysts at parties to some time in Paris and a stint in Texas that Zahra ends up discovering and is shocked out of her senses. In the words of Alex, the people who know about these two are the secret service, his own security, Nora, and Beatrice. As sweet as they are, they have their problems. Alex and Henry are not just public figures; they are also political figures. Despite our idealistic standards, the world has only just started normalizing the LGBTQIA+ community, and it almost always plays into the perception of people, especially those that we look up to. Be it political figures or the royal family, aspiration is a huge part of their public persona, and we as the general public have yet to shake off the dominant colonial, and cis-het ideals of what is acceptable and what is not for the world to be more accommodating of people with different identities.
Alex eventually comes out to his mother, and even his dad is extremely accepting of Henry and seems to like him as well. Encouraged by their acceptance, Alex decides to confess his love to Henry, but that only ends up driving him away as he is not sure if he can reciprocate that. However, when Alex follows him to London, we get a better understanding of Henry’s fear and why he tried to push away the man he loved so much. Alex had the love and support of his parents, but Henry did not. His father had passed away long ago; his mother was too involved with her charity work; and his grandfather always governed his life with an iron fist. Henry had probably liked and been with boys before, but his grandfather had made sure that those relationships did not last. This meant that even though Henry agreed that the monarchy was an antiquated institution, he was still bound by its archaic ideas. Should he choose to be with Alex, the prison would still exist because it was unclear whether Alex would be willing to come out publicly.
Alex wants the two of them to create their own rules for their relationship, but he promises to leave if Henry doesn’t want that. Henry is already too much in love, and he wants to fight for their relationship, albeit with some time and patience. Sadly, the couple is not granted that because the emails they have exchanged over the past couple of months, detailing their relationship, were leaked to the press.
Does Ellen Win The Reelection?
The person to leak the emails was Miguel, a reporter who had been previously involved with Alex and was either being ruthless with his job or was hurt by Alex’s rejection of him. But there is a bigger problem for the two boys right now. They are not allowed to contact each other and are individually dealing with the fallout of the situation. While Alex publicly admits that he is in love with Henry and condemns the invasion of their privacy, Henry has been close to being imprisoned in the palace. Luckily, Zahra has been seeing Shaan and is able to arrange a phone call between the lovers.
Soon after, Alex flies down to London to be with his boyfriend, and the two of them are on the same page regarding how they are going to move forward. That helps because when the King calls them for a meeting, they are able to hold each other’s hand and declare their intention to stop hiding from the world for the sake of some fake prestige and privilege. It helps that the entire country has come together to support their relationship, meaning that they are not held back or have to fight shame and prejudice, at least to the extent they anticipated. During Red, White, and Royal Blue‘s ending, Alex and Henry are in the US and are waiting for the re-election results of Alex’s mother. The entire result hinges on Texas, where Alex had gone to campaign on her behalf, but that could prove to be a mistake due to Alex’s new relationship and Texas’ conservative reputation. Luckily, the love story of these two seems to have heralded a better world, and Ellen Claremont wins the election.
Final Thoughts
Every minute of Red, White, and Royal Blue makes you fall in love with it. The charm of the actors, the humor, and the overall grace of the characters make this a great comfort watch. We wouldn’t be surprised if this movie became a cult classic over time. It is truly one of the better rom-coms we have seen in a few years.
