Casey McQuiston is a nonbinary author who uses they/them pronouns. They were put on The New York Times Bestseller list in 2019 for the book that is the basis of this adaptation. It imagines a narrative where the son of the President of the United States falls in love with the grandson of the King of England who would likely be the second-in-line to the throne. It's the most recent queer romantic comedy on Amazon, since Billy Porter's Anything's Possible (2022). Its tone is akin to those teen romantic comedies that have popped up on streaming services over the past five years, starting with popular titles like The Kissing Booth (2018) or To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018). That same year, Hollywood released its first teen romantic comedy focusing on a same-sex male relationship, that of Love, Simon (2018). Hollywood hasn't really done much more in that space, but streaming services have picked up the slack.
Directed and co-written by Matthew López, a Tony Award winner, this film feels very much in the same vein as those teen rom-coms where even though it's rated R, it still feels safe or lacking in any kind of sharp edges or emotional and even intellectual depth. It's popcorn and soda, not a highly nutritious meal. I suppose the fact that it has skin, meaning you see the hairy butt of one of the actors and intercourse, though only from the waist up, gives this film more of an edge than some others, including recent gay rom-coms like Heartstopper (2022). Yet, I wouldn't expect something on the level of Sex Education (2019) or Young Royals (2021). Those shows lean more on the dramatic. This leans more on the silly and fantasy.
Taylor Zakhar Perez (Minx and The Kissing Booth 2) stars as Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of the current U.S. President, a woman named Ellen Claremont, played by Uma Thurman (Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction). Alex is also the son of a Texas Congressman named Oscar Diaz, played by Clifton Collins Jr. (Capote and Traffic). Oscar is an immigrant, presumably from Mexico, which has inspired Alex to go into politics to make things better for people like the immigrant side of his family.
Nicholas Galitzine (Cinderella and Handsome Devil) co-stars as Henry Fox, a prince and member of the British royal family. He's specifically the grandson of the current King of England. His father who would have been heir to the throne passed away. There's no word about where Henry's mother is, or what happened to her. The true heir is Henry's older brother, Philip. Henry is considered the spare, or the secondary heir. He's akin to the real-life Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, who recently published a memoir called Spare (2023).
McQuiston reportedly developed the idea for this narrative in 2016 before news hit of Prince Harry dating Meghan Markle. Harry and Meghan married in 2018, a year before the book published, so it's possible that some of this story could have been informed by the Harry and Meghan relationship. Obviously, this film was made in the wake of Harry and Meghan's wedding. Given the look and position of Henry here, it's clear that Prince Harry is the comparison and likely was the inspiration.
The comparison goes to the fact that this secondary prince dated an American, which is untraditional enough, but, the Oprah Winfrey interview revealed an undertone of racism, given Markle is part African-American. Manvendra Singh Gohil is the first openly gay prince in real life. He's a prince in India. It wouldn't be until 2016 that we would get an openly gay member of the British royal family with Lord Ivar Mountbatten. Yet, Mountbatten isn't a prince. Here, Henry is a prince, so his presence in this film would make him the first gay prince in the line of succession. Just as Harry and Meghan tested the British royal family with an interracial relationship, this one tests with a homosexual one. Except, not really!
If one has seen Netflix's The Crown (2016), then one has seen several story lines involving the monarchy disapproving and even denying certain relationships and specifically marriages for reasons that reveal the strong religious ties between the monarchy and the church. The story line between Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend is one such example. Even to this day, there are government rules that dictate the marriages of the British royal family, such as the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.
Unfortunately, this film doesn't take the relationship between Alex and Henry to the point where they want to get married. Therefore, the problem for Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend isn't yet Alex and Henry's problem. However, the dramatic heft would have been greater if Alex and Henry were facing the religious, political and even legal challenges that Princess Margaret did. Otherwise, this whole thing is just a public relations issue without any real ramifications on the monarchy. It's also a bit of cop-out to have Henry be gay when he isn't the heir. It makes him being gay not be a real threat to the succession or to the actual throne. It would have been better if Philip were the gay one here. Otherwise, it makes those scenes involving the monarchy feel toothless.
Instead, the straw man here is the outing of Henry as being gay. The straw man is his privacy. The whole idea of the British royal family is that they're public figures. Every aspect of their lives is made public, especially their romantic lives because again there are official laws that dictate who they can or can't marry. I understand that it can be unfair to anyone born into the royal family who doesn't like the spotlight or who feels pressured into it. However, if Henry didn't like the spotlight, the film didn't really underline it in other regards. He goes to Alex's New Year's Eve party. He goes to the Prime Minister's banquet. He attends a polo match. All of which are public events. Alex knows about girlfriends Henry has had, which means those relationships were also public. The film never shows Henry retreating from public events in any other regard, so to make that the issue at the end feels like a straw man.
Finally, the most unbelievable thing that occurs in this film is Alex developing a plan to help his mother who is the incumbent Democratic nominee for President win the state of Texas. No Democratic Party nominee running for President has won the state of Texas in over 30 years. Texas is a red state. It's not to say a Democrat winning Texas is impossible, but, over the past 20 years, the Democratic nominee has lost by an average of a million votes. Alex says he's going to rally a million new voters, and he says he has a strategy, but we don't get any details as to what that strategy is. What could Alex do that Barack Obama couldn't do in 2012 who lost the state of Texas by 1.2 million votes?
If the film wants to do a story about flipping Texas, the film needed to give more to it, something more substantive. If the film had focused on swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia or even Florida, then that would've been more understandable or even more believable. Otherwise, the whole thing here is a liberal fantasy without any real work.
Rated R for some sexual content, partial nudity and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 58 mins.
Available on Amazon Prime.
