Movie #9 : Red White and Royal Blue

 The review you guys have all been waiting for. Or at least I've been waiting for. I've waited for this movie ever since it has been announced. The ads had gotten me hooked. I also read the book last summer and loved it. One of my friends actually saw it in theaters at an early premiere, so I was already hyped to see it. But I will still give me honest review.

"Red White and Royal Blue" was originally a book written by Casey McQuiston. The movie which was released in August 2023 was directed by Matthew Lopez. The story goes that Alex, the President of the US' son, has a strong dislike for the second Prince of England, Henry. After going to the royal wedding of Henry's older brother, an incident occurs in which both of the guys end up covered in cake. To recover from this as reelection approaches, the two now must do a press tour of them together pretending to be best friends. Soon, the pretending stops, and a bond forms between them. But as this bond turns romantic, they must navigate this newfound relationship across borders.

The actor who plays Alex, Taylor Zakhar-Perez, can be seen in "The Kissing Booth 2" and "The Kissing Booth 3". Now that series is so bad I did not even watch the third one, but I did like Zakhar-Perez's character and his acting. In RWRB, I think he still has a ways to go, especially with the delivery of lines, but he's a young actor and is getting better. Nicholas Galitzine is someone who I've known for quite a while. He was in one of my favorite movies "Handsome Devil" where he also played a gay man and has an upcoming role in a sapphic film called "Bottoms", which I will be tuning in for. I absolutely love him and he is an amazing actor. His emotion in this film could have been better and I think he was a bit awkward in the role. Still, both of these actors did have chemistry with each which made it an enjoyable watch. 

One thing that made me upset while watching this movie was the poor production quality. Some of the scenes and the backgrounds looked obviously staged and even fake. So at some point, it did feel like I was watching a gay Hallmark movie. I think they had a low budget. Still though, seeing the book I loved on screen with a main gay couple was really refreshing to see. 

There were also many changes that they made from the book to the movie. First, they got rid of characters such as June, Alex's sister, Liam, Alex's old roommate, and Rafael Luna, a gay senator friends with Alex. All of these characters were extremely important to Alex's sexuality journey which they pretty much cut out of the film. That was my biggest disappointment in the movie. His journey was so relatable and important to see on screen for so many bisexual people that cutting it out was so sad. All that was done was like a two-second scene with his mom where they ordered pizza. They also diminished many roles such as Nora's, Bea's, and Percy's. Henry's mother wasn't even in the film. I understand that there is not enough time in the film to do all of these things, but if they focused a little less on the relationship, they could have done more. We also live in the age of miniseries, so I would have rather had that.

After everything though, I still loved the film. Reading the book prior to watching definitely made me more critical of it, but it was still a good adaptation of the book. I recommend watching both to all my gay people out there. It is available on Amazing Prime and the book is available on Amazon as well.