Review by Benslie

When I first heard about this book, I thought the story sounded super intriguing and unique and couldn't wait to read it. After reading it I really enjoyed the story just as I had thought I would but I still found some issues with it as well. So when I heard there was going to be a movie adaptation I was worried about it but hoped that potentially it would fix the problems I had. In regards to fixing the problems I had with the original story, the movie did kind of fix them. One of my biggest problems with the original story is how it wasn't able to balance the politics and the relationship. The movie fixes this problem by pretty much getting rid of all the political talk and just focusing on the developing relationship. This was something that really impressed me and I enjoyed it as we could properly see how their relationship progressed. We could see Alex and Henry together more, making the audience who haven't read the book want to root for them to succeed. But with that being said that was the only change to the story that I enjoyed. Obviously, with this being an adaptation of a 421-page book some changes had to be made for the movie in order for it to work better. But there were some changes made that left me wondering why they had to be removed. This is especially true when some of the things removed are important to certain characters and their motivations and decisions. There are characters completely removed from the story that even if they were kept in wouldn't have changed the story that much. The same goes for certain situations that happen as well which helps influence certain characters in their lives. It's because of these removals that I honestly didn't find the characters in this movie to be all that interesting specifically with Alex and Henry. In the book, both of these characters are relatable due to the situations they go through and the character development they get along the way. You can easily see yourself in either one or both of the main guys. But in the movie, both of these guys just felt flat to me like we barely knew them. This probably sounds weird since I said the story focuses more on their relationship which it does it just doesn't properly develop it. This is due to a combination of things, one being the removal of certain book scenes as mentioned before but also some scenes being out of order. This didn't happen too often but there were two scenes that I can say for certain were shown in the opposite order of the book. Due to the scenes being flipped the moments between the two guys don't feel as genuine or make a lot of sense. This leads me to my second reason why they felt flat, which is the dialogue. The dialogue in this movie isn't bad per se but there were some lines I wish they had copied from the book. This is because after rereading certain scenes in the book I found them to be much more heartfelt and romantic. I know that some of the lines probably would've had to be changed slightly due to the changes made but the lines would've still worked. Including these lines would've added so much more depth to not just the characters but the main relationship as well as some of them involve one of them being vulnerable to the other. But of course, even with including the book's accurate lines nothing could've saved the characters from the biggest problem the story faced which is the pacing. As I mentioned before the book is 421 pages long and turning that into a 2-hour long movie is a tough job. You can tell the writers for this movie, Matthew Løpez and Ted Malawer, did the best they could by trimming it down and keeping the focus on Henry and Alex. But in doing so the movie felt very rushed which is what ended up causing the relationship and the characters to feel flat instead of static. The biggest example of this is the main relationship of the story between Henry and Alex. Due to the pacing, their relationship didn't have proper time to be fully fleshed out and the audience wanted them to get together. It pretty much felt like one second they hated each other, you blink and the next thing you know they're together now. Everything moved at lightning speed leaving zero room to breathe and letting things sit with the viewer. This lightning speed might work for those like me who have read the book and can easily fill in the gaps but not for those who haven't. Those who haven't read the book might struggle a bit in trying to figure everything out and how exactly we got from one scene to another. There is an element in this movie that definitely didn't help with the storytelling problems and that was the editing. The editing for this movie is very distracting in that you can clearly see where the cuts to the scenes are. Instead of them being camouflaged to hide the cuts in some of the scenes it will just randomly end and then cut to a new scene. The new scene usually won't connect to the previous one and the viewer has to try and figure out how they got there. There's one scene in particular that perfectly demonstrates this where two characters are talking about one thing and in the next scene they're talking about something else entirely different. There's no transition to smoothly connect the two scenes and instead, it felt like there was a deleted scene there. Which is another issue with how the movie was edited is you could easily tell where there most likely was a deleted scene. For certain scenes, it at times felt like there was information missing in them and that there most likely was a scene before it that would explain it. This is once again where having read the book would come in handy as it partially helps fill in those blanks.

Yet despite the problems regarding the story and editing the acting in this movie is pretty decent. I remember seeing the casting announcement for this movie and being worried. I honestly didn't think the cast was going to work but I ended up being surprised. Every actor in this movie did the best job they could to bring their characters to life despite the changes made. They all stayed true to the book version of their character all while making it their own at the same time. The person who stayed the most true to their character though and being the scene stealer as well was Nicholas Galitzine. Henry is an introverted person who faces a lot of internal conflict due to his position. He knows he's gay but knows that his grandfather and brother wouldn't support him so has to keep it hidden away. Nicholas Galitizine perfectly encapsulates this part of Henry making him the most relatable character in this movie. He shows through his facial expressions and body language the conflict that Henry faces throughout the movie. If you put the movie on mute and just looked at those elements of his performance you would still be able to tell what Henry is feeling in those moments. I loved seeing him show all of the different sides of Henry from his more vulnerable sides to his press persona. It makes Henry this sympathetic character that the audience routes for to get his happy ending. In order for him to get his happy ending though he needs a partner in crime and Taylor Zakhar Perez did a good job being that person. Alex is the complete opposite of Henry being an extrovert and confident in who is and what he wants to do. Due to Alex being the main character of the book his character had the most changes made. So Taylor Zakhar Perez already had the tough job to try and stay true to the book version all while incorporating the changes made. Even though the changes made did drastically change his character making him less relatable Taylor Zakhar Perez still did a good job bringing Alex to life. He easily stays true to Alex's personality of being a workaholic all while still being the life of the party. But what I enjoyed the most about his performance was when he showed Alex's more vulnerable side. It was during these moments that I saw the relatable character from the book that I liked. Taylor Zakhar Perez perfectly showed how down-to-earth and caring Alex truly is and how just like with Henry only certain people get to see this side of him. I enjoyed getting to see him balance all the different sides of Alex but it was the vulnerable moments that made me see him as this character. Another person who surprised me with how accurate they were was Uma Thurman as president Ellen Claremont. The book describes Ellen as someone who finds it hard to balance being a mom and president at times. Uma Thurman despite not being in the movie that much captures this to perfection. She easily shows how hard-working Ellen is to continue to prove why she deserves to be in office. Yet at times that work can take over her life and ends up ignoring her family when they need her the most. Uma Thurman also shows how much of a caring mom Ellen can be at times though whenever she gets those moments. I especially love the scene where she supports Alex's coming out and asks him an important question. It's because of Uma Thurman's performance that if Ellen Claremont was real I think a lot of people would vote for her as president.

In the end, Red White and Royal Blue might continue the trend of being a mediocre adaptation but still have some heart to it. I still think the story would've worked best as a TV series adaptation but still give this one a watch just read the book first.