The novels, and the movies based on the novels of, best-selling author Colleen Hoover seem to have one mission, and that is to make you sad. Sure, maybe by the end you’ll feel somewhat uplifted, but the road to that fleeting moment of joy is long and agonizing. In the last couple years, we’ve had the films It Ends With Us (a decent movie that is still making people miserable—Google it) and the far worse Regretting You. And because we’re so lucky, later this year we’re getting Verity, starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, directed by comedy specialist Michael Showalter. But I digress, because we’re here to talk about Hoover’s latest misery-fest, Reminders of Him, the adaptation she co-wrote based on her 2022 novel, which sold more than six million copies.
After seven years in prison, Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) returns to her hometown in Wyoming to finally meet the daughter she barely laid eyes on after she was born while in jail. Kenna was in jail because she pled guilty to being under the influence while driving the car that crashed and killed her boyfriend, Scotty (Rudy Pandow, whom we see in flashbacks), and while we suspect the circumstances of the accident aren’t everything we’re being told by other folks, finding out the truth about the crash requires us to sit through this entire movie, and it turns out not to be that interesting anyway. The daughter, Diem (Zoe Kosovic) is being raised by Scotty’s parents (Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford), as well as Scotty’s lifelong best friend, Ledger (Tyriq Withers, Him, I Know What You Did Last Summer), a former NFL player who owns a local bar and also lives across the street from Scotty’s family.
Although they never actually met before the crash, Kenna and Ledger become close upon her return because he starts to see that not only is she a good person who got handed a raw deal, but also the portrait painted of her being unremorseful in court was simply her feeling like she deserved every bad thing that happened to her because her life was effectively over (she didn’t know she was pregnant at the time). When Scotty’s family finds out she’s around, they file a restraining order against her, which doesn’t help the situation, but Ledger gives her a job and even starts to fall for her, which begins the countdown clock to the family finding out, putting a rift between them.
Director Vanessa Caswill (her second feature after the forgettable 2023 Netflix rom-com Love at First Site) does a nice job establishing the community that surrounds Kenna, both the place and the people. We meet folks who she comes into contact with daily and who add a little color to her dreary life, like her grumpy landlord, a pregnant waitress who works at the bar, an assistant manager who befriends her at the grocery store where she gets a job, and even a mentally challenged teen who lives in her apartment complex. I found myself drawn into those relationships more than some of the primary ones we’re meant to care about because these are the people who prop her up with no emotional baggage and don’t constantly remind her of her past mistakes. These new friendships give her hope of moving forward, rather than always looking back.
But since Reminders of Him is bent on making us weepy wrecks, most of what we do is look back. I don’t think there’s a single real surprise about the direction this story goes, and even some of the big emotional moments don’t have the impact they should because we know they’re coming from the first 15 minutes of the movie. The chemistry between the two leads is believable, but even the arc of their relationship doesn’t come with any twists and turns; it’s mostly a straight road with no horizon. Reminders of Him isn’t terrible or unwatchable—the two leads are too interesting for that—but it left me unmoved, which might almost be worse for a film trying its damndest to make us feel something.
The film begins playing in theaters on Friday.
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