The highly anticipated movie adaptation of the Red, White, and Royal Blue book came out to everyone’s excitement on July 22nd, 2023.
Even after the movie has been out for a month and a half, fans are still fixated on the movie’s drama, action and steamy romance. Although many fans of the book worried about the movie adaptation due to the lack of success with movie adaptations of video games and books in the past, the question is: did it pass their expectations?
The movie is based on a realistic fictional world surrounding the president’s son, Alex Claremont-Diaz (played by Taylor Zakhar Perez), and the British prince, Prince Henry (played by Nicholas Galitzine). The couple goes through the enemies to lovers trope on a journey to understand and learn about each other while balancing their famous lives, traditions and values.
Both characters are portrayed brilliantly with a great use of tone, a strong sense of connection to the story and amazing romance scenes that relate very well to the book and its story. Perez, Alex’s actor, displays a classic “golden retriever” personality by being idealistic, passionate in his views and very charismatic. Galitzine, Prince Henry’s actor, plays the opposite “black cat” personality which gives the character a sense of a regal, closed off attitude. Along with the display of personalities, both actors play the characters’ strong chemistry very well and make the drama very believable. Also, the actors are great at getting their characters’ emotions and perspectives across. Even though these actors were great though, multiple others sometimes took the spotlight.
Red, White, and Royal Blue, while having great main character actors, has an amazing supporting cast. Characters like Nora (Rachel Hilson), Zahra (Sarah Shasi), and Shaan (Akshay Khanna) help keep Alex and Prince Henry’s love stay alive while going through personal and international challenges. All of their personalities shine through in interesting ways and all of them attempt to give advice to either Alex or Prince Henry. Ellen (Uma Thurman), Alex’s mother, is highly supportive of Alex and supports him in his personal goals and idealistic ideas. Thurman also plays her character well as the president of the United States and a supportive mother.
Other than the cast, multiple other aspects of the movie show how much thought was put into the movie’s creation. Aspects like the movie’s pacing and settings work very well in the movie and truly show how hard of an effort the actors, crew and director put into this film and its creation. The most important aspect though is that the movie sticks to the book very well. Other than a few minor changes, the movie accurately displays the book’s story in an amazing way.
Overall, the movie was a fantastic adventure filled with romance, drama and amazing acting. I’d absolutely recommend that everyone check out Red, White, and Royal Blue because, if you’re not, you’re missing out on a magical experience.
