
There additionally appears to be a gap between the movie’s understanding of American politics and how politics actually function today. A computer-generated Washington Monument and the backdrop to Alex’s first kiss with Henry - an incredibly simulated-looking tree - are among the more painful of these backdrops. The fact that the film’s settings are at times clearly fake only contributes to its detached sense of reality. Alex tells Henry that he wants to “figure out a way to love each other on our own terms,” but he does so with such forced sincerity that the line falls flat. During a central argument in the film, for instance, the actors’ poor performances end up taking away from what’s actually decent writing. Both Perez and Galitzine are fine in quick moments of comedic relief, but it becomes difficult to take them seriously any time the two attempt to be vulnerable with one another. Unfortunately, the low-quality acting makes any humorless scene in the film difficult to watch. They wish for acceptance - from both each other and their respective countries - and the struggle is at times heartbreaking.
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The characters become even more likable as each grapples with how to exist outside of the heteronormative expectations imposed upon them. Even at the beginning of the movie, when the two are still only pretending to like each other to maintain their public images, it's hard not to note the chemistry jumping off of the screen. To their credit, Zakhar Perez and Galitzine have incredible chemistry together. In a matter of only a few months, Alex and Henry begin to flirt, see each other in secret and inevitably fall in love. Their dislike, of course, turns out to be the result of a misunderstanding and soon begins to dissipate. At the beginning of the movie, the young political figures hate one another: Alex is about as confidently American as one can get and Henry largely comes across as an insufferable snob.

Based on the novel by Casey McQuiston, the film follows a romance between Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the first son of the United States, and Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), second in line to the English throne. The premise of “Red, White & Royal Blue” is immediately absurd.

In a little under two hours, the film manages to travel so far past the line that it leaves any semblance of reality far in the distance.

“Red, White & Royal Blue” spends most of its runtime in this more intolerable realm of romance. Audiences can only be subjected to so many overbearing love songs and cliche pick-up lines, even when a film centers around a budding relationship. While a certain level of uncomfortable cheesiness is expected in romantic comedies, there is such a thing as crossing the line.
