Red, White & Royal Blue

Red, White and Royal Blue

This queer romantic comedy tells the story of a British prince falling in love with the son of an American president, and the roads they travel as they explore this love.

This movie is very reminiscent of the queer teen series, Young Royals, especially with the similar themes both portray, but Red, White and Royal Blue has characters that are more aged.

Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine are brimming with cute and endearing chemistry, making this romcom very enjoyable and believable. The progression from enemies to friends and eventual lovers was a bit fast, but each stage has memorable moments. The supporting cast was also good, especially Sarah Shahi and Uma Thurman (the coming-out scene between her and Taylor Perez was very memorable and sweet), but some of their characters could have been fleshed out better.

Having not read the book, I can't state how faithful it was to it, and if this adaptation is better or worse. But there were some resolutions I felt weren't done, like Nick's journalist friend not getting his comeuppance. The movie would have fared better if it was a mini-series. There's also a sort of imbalance that occurs in the sex/romantic scenes, the scenes before the Paris hotel scene have a Disneyesque tame feel to them, and then the Paris hotel scene packs in beautiful smut.

Red, White and Royal Blue is an easy and enjoyable watch, and should definitely please romcom lovers.

6.5-7/10.

Cramming the content of a novel into a two-hour movie means you're going to see characters eliminated and scenes combined, that's just a given. To say "the book was better" is a well-worn cliche, so I won't use it here, but having read the book first, I was saddled with expectations that were never met.

For a light, two-hour "Hallmark movie the week" style flick? Red, White & Royal Blue was fine. But the cost was having to eliminate most of the emotion, peril and building up to the big scenes that the book had. The pacing felt rushed, and it seemed like the director was trying to get to from one big moment from the book to the next, as quickly as possible before they ran out of time.

Casting-wise, the actors all pretty much looked exactly like how they were meticulously described in the book-with one glaring exception. In the book, Alex was much younger. Closer to 21. He was also noticeably shorter than Henry too, at around 5' 7" or 5' 8" (which is why his "He doesn't look 6' 2"!" line in the film seems to come out of nowhere). Nicholas Galitzine was a decade to old and far too tall for the part. Instead of seeing a young college student fall for a tall, handsome prince? We spent two hours watching two grown Abercrombie & Fitch models trying to "out hot" each other.

Overall the film was cute and worked fine, but it lacked most of the emotion and actual peril the book rewarded us with-and what a 3 to 5-episode mini-series could've delivered.

This movie was a HUGE shock to me, it was so very beautiful and it made me cry!! I was not expecting much, as I'm an older lady who does not often watch 'young people's' movies because I invariably find them uninteresting (to me). But this film is SO well done and has such a lovely and relevant story, that I was hooked from the very start!! The 2 lead actors are amazing in their roles, both very believable. The production values are first class, and the story highlights SUCH an important issue in our world today - that of TOLERANCE & ACCEPTANCE of others. We are each a UNIQUE creation, and consensual adult love in all its forms should be celebrated. There is so much hatred, bigotry and suffering in the world today, we need more films that bring us together, like this one. Congratulations and Thanks to all involved in its creation!!

From my point of view, this movie portrays not only the essence of love and everything that it brings with it, a little bit of happiness, a little bit of sadness, a little bit of fear, as well as insecurity and doubts, questioning and finding one's true self, especially when two cannot be together for any reasons ... but as well all the importance that people from the immediate environment have on an individual's life , benevolent ones, like parents and friends in this case, but also the malicious ones ...

Highly recommended to watch, more than once, if you want to notice all the finesse that the crew that worked on this project performed masterfully!

On the other hand, as good as the movie is, it's just a hint of the book, so ... I fell in love with the movie, but if you want this story to blow your mind, read the book :)

Well, if you read the book this movie adaptation may be a disappointment for you. Everything seemed so fast in the movie it's like all the important details from the book are overlooked and are not given justice. Similar to a comment here, maybe it this were a series, then it could have been a lot better. It's like the scenes just quickly pan from one scene to another losing the profound moments reflected in the book. Although quite understandable that they need to fit everything in 120 minute more or so into a movie.

One good thing here are getting these actors hot actors to play the gay roles. I wished though that the romance could have been highlighted more.