Red, White & Royal Blue

Cramming the content of a novel into a two-hour movie means you're going to see characters eliminated and scenes combined, that's just a given. To say "the book was better" is a well-worn cliche, so I won't use it here, but having read the book first, I was saddled with expectations that were never met.

For a light, two-hour "Hallmark movie the week" style flick? Red, White & Royal Blue was fine. But the cost was having to eliminate most of the emotion, peril and building up to the big scenes that the book had. The pacing felt rushed, and it seemed like the director was trying to get to from one big moment from the book to the next, as quickly as possible before they ran out of time.

Casting-wise, the actors all pretty much looked exactly like how they were meticulously described in the book-with one glaring exception. In the book, Alex was much younger. Closer to 21. He was also noticeably shorter than Henry too, at around 5' 7" or 5' 8" (which is why his "He doesn't look 6' 2"!" line in the film seems to come out of nowhere). Nicholas Galitzine was a decade to old and far too tall for the part. Instead of seeing a young college student fall for a tall, handsome prince? We spent two hours watching two grown Abercrombie & Fitch models trying to "out hot" each other.

Overall the film was cute and worked fine, but it lacked most of the emotion and actual peril the book rewarded us with-and what a 3 to 5-episode mini-series could've delivered.

I was saddened to see the mixed/leaning-bad reviews for this. I'm a huge fan of the book and I wanted the movie to do well. So imagine my gratification when I finished it just now and it was an absolute delight. It made me so happy, even as the the movie wasn't without the same moments of heartache from the novel. I came in expecting "discount Hallmark" (something I saw mentioned a few times in this morning's news publications).

All I can say is the reviewers must not have read the source material, because it was largely faithful to it (soz, June). Sure, some things I could have done without (i.e., the villain of the piece), and there were some truly cheesy moments and some convenient happenstances plot-wise, but they just made me laugh without robbing the movie of its loveliness.

Please don't let the reviews scare you away.

I said the same thing when I watched the trailer and I was right. The book had so much details that simply cannot be captured in a 2-hour movie. While, the movie does its best to capture important moments, many crucial moments were still lost to the winds. It's a good and entertaining movie but maybe I would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't read the book.

I missed the characters who were crucial to the story and to what makes Alex Alex. The characters they kept were watered down to the point of blandness and the story felt too fast-paced and rushed.

The chemistry between the leads though takes the cake and although their story could have been more expounded, it was really well done and for that I'm glad.

Hallmark clone? Yup. Over the top fairy tale? Agreed.

The best feel good happy ending gay themed romcom I've ever seen? Absolutely 100%

I can't count how many gay themed movies I've wasted hours watching with angsty, cry me a river, gays get the shaft because that's what they deserve storylines. I've longed to see a sappy love story where the guy gets the guy and no one dies or leaves. I wish something like this existed when I was young.

This is the one. It's well done, the lead actors have GREAT chemistry. Even though both of them are straight, they put in the work to make the romance believable and heartfelt. The supporting characters could have been a bit more developed (they were in the book) but they're still funny and likeable.

I highly recommend this movie, especially for young people.

Well, if you read the book this movie adaptation may be a disappointment for you. Everything seemed so fast in the movie it's like all the important details from the book are overlooked and are not given justice. Similar to a comment here, maybe it this were a series, then it could have been a lot better. It's like the scenes just quickly pan from one scene to another losing the profound moments reflected in the book. Although quite understandable that they need to fit everything in 120 minute more or so into a movie.

One good thing here are getting these actors hot actors to play the gay roles. I wished though that the romance could have been highlighted more.