‘Red White & Royal Blue’

By: Abisola Dosunmu

*Note: This article contains spoilers

‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ is a movie adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s bestselling original novel. It was released on August 11, 2023, on Amazon Prime. The movie recently reached No. 1 on Prime due to its popularity.

It featured two talented actors starring as the main leads: Taylor Zakhar Perez playing Alex Claremont-Diaz, the first son of the first female president, and Nicholas Galitzine playing Henry Fox, the prince of Britain. They meet, they cause an international scandal concerning a lot of cake during a very public royal wedding, and somewhere in the months of forced – then not so forced – contact to perform damage control, they slowly fall in love. But before that?

The ocean that separates those two couldn’t be wider, according to Alex. Alex has had a problem with Henry ever since he brushed him off at the Olympics, while Henry was just trying to grieve his dead father. This plot point doesn’t change much in the movie, however, the friendship part of their relationship felt rushed, rather than the natural progression and banter that was seen in the book. Understandable, the directors had to smush the entire book into a two hour movie, which meant some parts had to be entirely cut out from the movie, as it is with most movie adaptations. However, the movie would have been better if it was fleshed out in a six part series, rather than a two hour movie.

One thing I liked in the movie was the chemistry between the two male leads, Taylor and Nicholas. They really brought the characters Henry and Alex to life, the charisma and the banter between the two characters was very entertaining to watch. The movie wouldn’t have been half as enjoyable to watch without these two.

Still, the heart of the novel, ‘Red White & Royal Blue’, remains entirely the same in the movie. It reads like a corny romcom on the pages, but the actors and directors really brought the lightness and humor of it to life on screen.

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