Born in 1991, Casey McQuiston in 2016 watched the election campaign in which Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton fought for a place in the White House – often with below-the-belt grips. At the same time, he often read books on the monarchy. And so, at some point, an idea for a novel appeared in McQuiston’s head. Probably no one could have imagined that this literary debut would become such a success – “Red, White & Royal Blue” became a hit right after its premiere in 2019, and on August 11, a film with Nicholas Galitzin and Taylor Zakhar Perez hit Amazon Prime Video in the roles of two young boys living on a candlestick, who unexpectedly – also for themselves – fall in love with each other.
Charming actors did not ensure full success
The first game of a British prince, the so-called spare. This is a nickname given not to the heir to the throne (“heir”), but to the younger, second in line to the throne. Prince Henry is loved by the people, but practically no one knows that he is a homosexual. The other protagonist of the book and film is the son of the president of the United States (played by Uma Thurman), a child of a Democrat from Republican Texas and a son of Mexican migrants. Now Alex Claremont-Diaz is studying, trying to prove to his mother that he can be useful in the campaign, not only posing for photos, and he doesn’t really like Henry, whom he met a few years earlier. Do you already know what this is leading to? Of course, as a result of the scandal, they have to pretend to be friends, and something more is born out of it.
“Red, White & Royal Blue” is currently Amazon’s most-watched movie in the world and – according to the service – one of the three most popular romantic comedies since the launch of the platform in 2006. The reviews of foreign critics are overwhelmingly positive (on the Rotten Tomatoes website, the film has 79 percent positive opinions from specialists, and as much as 94 percent from viewers), but in my opinion, unfortunately, this is only a half-successful production. After reading the book in 2022, I was hoping for much more.
The creators of the production did not avoid the sin of casting older actors in the roles of much younger heroes. Probably not many people see the otherwise charming and very handsome 31-year-old Perez as a student who is just discovering his identity. Much better in this respect is the 28-year-old Galitzin, who was probably born to play British aristocrats. However, we can still turn a blind eye to this, especially since the chemistry between the actors is undisputed. Unfortunately, in addition to climatic, sensual or sweet scenes, they also got to play scenes straight from Hallmark, which specializes in B-class television productions. Sometimes we watch a modern, open romance story, and sometimes a bad soap opera. Despite everything, for the two main actors, the film is worth at least checking out.
“Red, White & Royal Blue” wastes the potential of stars
I put a big charge on the actress, who was certainly supposed to be a strong point of the cast. Uma Thurman, with her horrendous Texas accent, performs poorly as the leader of one of the world’s great powers, and even less so in scenes where she is a mother. If you make it to the point where he orders pizza to the White House and sits on the couch with his son, you’ll probably have the same question in your head:
Why so stiff?
Uma Thurman in ‘Red, White and Royal Blue’ Amazon Prime Video promotional materials
There is no tenderness, no intimacy, there is a numbness as rarely seen in films. It’s also sad to see British pop culture legend Stephen Fry playing the role of the British monarch. This extremely intelligent, endowed with an amazing sense of humor and talent actor literally appears for a few minutes, so I will not torment him, but it is a pity that his potential was not used. It would hurt less if a lesser-known actor was cast in the role.
Want a great queer fairytale romance? Turn on another production
McQuiston has said in interviews that she decided to write queer romances because she grew up in a religious environment and wanted to feel less alone as a non-binary teen in a Christian school. The debut, which is “Red, White & Royal Blue” became a bestseller, because it turned out that there are more people like McQuiston. In addition, the novel’s atmosphere of a romantic comedy (not devoid of eroticism) and witty dialogues appealed not only to LGBTQ+ people (although, for obvious reasons, not to right-wing circles). It’s the same with the film, but it seems that the initial great interest will not turn into a phenomenon in the case of a film adaptation. If you are looking for a story about two young men who discover their identities on the screen and experience their first great feeling, definitely reach for “Heartstopper” from Netflix. While “Red, White & Royal Blue” is only two hours long, it stretches more than eight half-hour production episodes from a competitor.
At Netflix you will get the warmth that the creators of “Red, White & Royal Blue” probably wanted, simplifying the threads a bit and depriving the plot of complications and a bit of darkness, which in my opinion only served the book. There, however, it resulted naturally from the work of Alice Oseman’s comics, who also worked very hard on the adaptation of “Heartstopper”. In Amazon’s production, he impoverishes the story, which – although fairy-tale-like in principle – was more real in the pages of the novel than in the film.
Casey McQuiston uses the pronouns “they/them”, which can be translated into Polish in the context of non-binary people in various ways – we do not have one specific usage. For the Love Does Not Exclude Association, we recommend reviewing the website zaimki.pl and its translation suggestions, e.g. gendered pronouns and nouns.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
