Summary

The enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope has taken #BookTok by storm, skyrocketing book sales and elevating authors like Colleen Hoover and Casey McQuiston. Red, White & Royal Blue, directed by Matthew López, follows the trend and is a serviceable adaptation with shades of Hallmark Channel, though it lacks laughs. The film focuses on the central romance between Alex and Henry, sidelining other characters, and lacks a solid sense of humor, but accurately depicts their queer relationship.

Editor’s note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.

The enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope has taken #BookTok by storm as romance novels have exploded on the platform that has elevated authors like Colleen Hoover, Madeline Miller, Olivia Blake, Casey McQuiston, and more. The trend has seen book sales skyrocket as TikTok users search for their next read. McQuiston’s novel Red, White & Royal Blue is one of BookTok’s earliest successes, and its rumored origins are as interesting as the trend itself. Directed by Matthew López, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ted Malawer, Red, White & Royal Blue is about what you’d expect from a BookTok film. There are shades of the Hallmark Channel in a movie that is serviceable as an adaptation and while Red, White & Royal Blue is a little too light on laughs, its central romance follows the book closely enough that die-hard fans will be pleased and casual viewers will be able to find something to love.

The film wastes no time setting the scene: The First Son, Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), and the spare heir, Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), are at the wedding of Henry’s brother. The pair have a clear disdain for each other (though no reason is given), and, eventually, they wind up on the floor covered in cake in front of Buckingham Palace’s finest. To avert an international PR crisis, Alex’s mother, President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman, giving it her all with a ridiculous southern drawl) sends Alex back to the UK for damage control, forcing Alex and Henry to pretend they’ve been friends for ages, a predicament that will eventually lead to a pond-hopping, political crisis-making romance.

Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez in Red, White and Royal Blue. 

Perez and Galitzine have enough chemistry to carry Red, White & Royal Blue, and with the movie so wholly focused on their journey, it’s something that could’ve easily sunk the film. For those who have read the novel, you may be disappointed to see that many of the book’s prominent characters are sidelined for a more streamlined focus on the romance between Alex and Henry. This means people like Henry’s sister Princess Bea (Ellie Bamber), Alex’s best friend Nora (Rachel Hilson), and more don’t get fully fleshed-out arcs, making the personal lives of the movie’s two central characters feel a bit hollow. Fortunately, Thurman gets a few meaty scenes as the president (and we should all be thankful for more Uma Thurman), as does Sarah Shahi as Zahra Bankston, President Claremont’s Deputy Chief of Staff.

More than anything, though, Red, White & Royal Blue lacks a solid sense of humor. There are some laughable moments, including a PopCrave shout-out for the terminally online and a romantic moment set to Lil Jon’s song Get Low. Otherwise, the film retains the novel’s 2016 sense of humor (despite being published in 2019) and it also keeps the politics. President Claremont, the first female president, was elected in 2016, and it seems that most problems prevalent in the political landscape have been solved or at least minimized by the time she’s running for re-election during the events of the movie. It has echoes of the centrist perspective that, if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, the world’s problems would be solved, but its sanitized, neoliberal perspective isn’t surprising for a film that struggles to give ample screentime to its intriguing cast of characters. After all, if you’re looking for a nuanced discussion of American politics, Red, White & Royal Blue isn’t the place to go anyway.

Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine in Red, White and Royal Blue. 

For all its shortcomings, one thing Red, White & Royal Blue gets right is Henry and Alex’s relationship. Even with its fantastical origins, the movie’s depiction of a burgeoning queer relationship feels as down-to-earth as it can while still leaning into the absurdity of the premise and depicting a conventionally attractive couple. Despite its R-rating, though, Red, White & Royal Blue is more Heartstopper than Passages, and anyone hoping for a raunchier look into the beloved characters’ sex lives may be sorely disappointed. The MPA’s designation is more for the copious amount of F-bombs dropped than any steamy scenes between Alex and Henry and, if this was a theatrical release, Amazon certainly would’ve cut these to make the film more accessible to a younger audience, as that’s who the target seems to be.

Red, White & Royal Blue also suffers from a rushed third act — it may be one of the few instances where a book would’ve been better served as an 8-part limited series rather than a two-hour movie — but it’s fun nonetheless. It’s essentially a fantasy, a fluffy good time with a happy ending, and like Love, Simon or Heartstopper before it, it’s certain to capture hearts and provide some much-needed representation. Sometimes that’s all a movie like Red, White and Royal Blue needs to be.

Red, White and Royal Blue begins streaming on Prime Video on August 11. The film is 118 minutes long and is rated R for some sexual content, partial nudity and language.