This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
When Red, White & Royal Blue was first released in 2019, some of the first reactions to the Casey McQuiston novel seemed sure that it would make a great adaption. Now a whole four years and multiple trepidations later, Matthew Lopez and Ted Malawer with Prime Video, bring us a heartwarming and joyful adaption that’s bought to life by Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine.
Prepare to be transported on a journey of finding yourself, falling in love and not giving a damn about what anyone else thinks. This is a film in which Perez and Galitzine shine. Their chemistry is off the charts and just like in the novel, fans will find themselves rooting for Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) and Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez), as a British Prince falls truly, madly and very much deeply in love with the First Son of the United States.
Whilst the writing isn’t as sharp as the source material, it comes pretty damn close. Whilst you’ll laugh out loud one moment, you’ll unexpectedly be moved by the tenderness and ease that some characters feel about the budding relationship. Especially Uma Thurman’s role as a concerned but accepting mother of her son’s relationship.
Uma Thurman makes for a brilliant President who’s in the middle of a re-election campaign and rounds out a supporting cast that includes Stephen Fry, Rachel Hilson, Sharon D. Clarke and Sarah Shahi as Alex’s Private Secretary. Shahi is definitely a standout performer in this film. Just as Zahra brings the humour and wittiness to the novel, Shahi takes it up a notch on screen.
Matthew López’s direction is what turns Red, White & Royal Blue into a movie rather than the Lifetime Original that it could so easily have become. The majority of the main arcs in the novel happen within the film’s first thirty-five minutes, which allows for more depth and exploration of the relationship. Galitzine makes you feel his every emotion throughout the film, especially when he has to choose between his love and his duty.
Perez makes Alex a lot more intruiguing and more three-dimensional than in the novel. Whilst there could’ve been more interaction between him and Hilson’s Nora — given just how close she is to Alex in the source material — it would’ve been nice to see this friendship explored more, especially in the immediate aftermath of Henry and Alex’s relationship being publicly revealed. In the novel, she’s a fighting spirit for Alex and Henry’s relationship, a ride or die, over a cliff supporter of the two, but in the film,she’s in two scenes. In fact, it would’ve been nice to see much more of Alex’s personal life, than just that of what revolves around his family. It’s this juxtaposition of Alex’s happy-go-lucky, free as a bird lifestyle, compared to Henry’s feeling of being locked in a gilded cage, that’s so sorely missing in this adaption.
Viewers will fall in love with these characters, even more so if they’ve read the book, and what to see how their story ends. With a two-hour runtime, the film doesn’t feel that long at all — in fact, it could’ve been longer.
Red, White & Royal Blue is a film that pulls you in and makes you grin from ear to ear, from start to finish and makes you wish you had a relationship like Alex and Henry.
Red, White, & Royal Blue is out August 10th on Prime Video.
