Happy Wednesday Scribblers, I hope you’re all having a wonderful week. Eric and I finally got around to watching Red, White and Royal Blue and today, after much consideration, I thought I would share my thoughts on this Prime Movie, based on the book Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel (click here) by Casey McQuiston. To be clear, these are only my opinions and my thoughts on the movie, so let’s jump in.
To begin, I remember when this novel first came out (May 2019) and all I could do was roll my eyes. Not because of all the attention this novel garnered, but because I felt like, here we go again, another MM Romance story written for the mass market. I asked myself, when are we going to get something different? Something interesting? Something exciting? Why are we getting another MM Romance novel? I refused to read the book because I knew exactly what this story was all about and how it would go. I’ve had to read hundreds of MM Romance books. They are all the same. Two guys meet, hate each other, are forced into a situation where they have to get to know each other, fall in love, have sex, break up (over something) and at the end get back together, and have more sex. This is the formula that all MM Romance stories follow (and I assume the same formula, all romance stories in general follow). Anyway, I wasn’t interested in reading the book, plus my TBR list is huge and filled with so many better, more interesting books, at least in my opinion.
After months of watching this novel get more and more attention, I learned that a movie based on the book was in the works. I mean, of course, let’s exploit gay men for the entertainment of straight women who get all doe-eyed when it comes to MM Romance. So again, I shook my head and did my best to ignore what I witnessed around me in the writing world when it came to this novel and soon to be movie.
Am I sounding bitter, yes, but not for the reason you may think.
As an author over the last few years I have learned about the publishing industry and watched what sells… Romance. Sadly, when we are speaking of gay novels, the only books that seem to get any attention are MM Romance novels written by people who are not gay men (if you don’t believe me here is a list of top MM Romance novels, click here, almost all written by non-gay men), which in general is fine because authors should be able to write and tell the stories they want to tell. However, because of this tendency, we are losing the writers who want to tell stories that honestly reflect their community. That is why I’m a bit salty about books and movies like Red, White, and Royal Blue.
Are you still reading this or did I lose you…?
Anyway, back to the movie. We watched Red, White and Royal Blue. For what the movie is they did a good job, however, I believe the main actors are both too old for the characters they play and sadly it showed on screen, but Hollywood loves to do this. I would love to continue to tell you everything else I despised about this movie, but there wasn’t anything else. The acting was solid, the characters were likable (if not stereotypical) and the story was enjoyable and I appreciated the overall message that the movie presented. Basically Red, White and Royal Blue is a solid movie and is one that can be watched and enjoyed (and has been enjoyed by several people I know who happen to be gay men). The movie is also a pretty accurate adaptation of the book, from what I’ve read and learned.
Am I being too harsh on the author for writing this novel, probably? Would I have enjoyed the story more if the novel was written by a gay man? Maybe. Would the story feel more real and true to life? Definitely. Would the book have ever seen the light of day if the story was written by a gay man… doubtful, but that’s how the publishing industry works. You want to sell; you write MM Romance and if you are someone other than a gay man writing the stories, you stand a better chance of getting the story out there. Again, if you don’t believe me, I suggest you review the list above again (click here).
Eric did make a comment to me about the movie after we watched and he said he didn’t care who wrote the story. He was glad to see the story out there. I had to agree with him (as I often do) seeing more stories out there like this is wonderful and appreciated.
If you want to watch an enjoyable movie with no surprises or that offers nothing new, then this is the movie for you. I would watch the movie again, as I enjoyed the movie and found it entertaining and fun.
A bit of a mixed bag today. I know I may sound harsh for my comments on the book and the movie, but honestly, I’m disappointed. I want to know when we’re going to embrace stories written by gay men reflecting their real lives and not some fetishized version presented to the masses? Sadly, I’m not sure it even matters as long as the stories get out there. Well, I hope you appreciated this review, until next time have a great week.