It’s not surprising that the ads for Reminders of Him remind us that the film comes “from the best-selling author of It Ends With Us and Regretting You.” That author is Colleen Hoover, who has quickly become as much a cinematic as literary brand, the romantic-drama equivalent of John Grisham for legal thrillers and Stephen King for horror. By this point, audiences know what to expect: very pretty people dealing with heart-wrenching situations in photogenic places, and often finding love along the way.
That’s certainly the case with this latest screen adaptation that shamelessly manipulates you emotionally and does it so relentlessly that you become worn down by the end. It feels appropriate that a key scene in the film features the Coldplay song “Yellow,” the sort of chart-topping ballad that you deride even while eventually finding yourself singing along.
The Bottom Line Not as good as 'It Ends with Us,' better than 'Regretting You.'
Release date: Friday, March 13Cast: Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Lainey Wilson, Lauren Graham, Bradley WhitfordDirector: Vanessa VaswillScreenwriters: Colleen Hoover, Lauren Levine Rated PG-13, 1 hour 54 minutes
Reminders of You, like much of Hoover’s oeuvre, doesn’t trade in subtlety. When its lead character Kenna is released from prison and makes her way back to her picturesque Wyoming hometown of Laramie, she winds up living at the run-down Paradise Apartments, because, you know, the irony. Her new landlord forces her to adopt a kitten whose cuteness and plaintive meowing are the big-screen equivalent of one of those heart-rending pet adoption ads.
Kenna is played by Maika Monroe, who seems relieved not to be trapped in her usual horror film scream-queen persona and delivers a solid performance that has us rooting for her character at every turn. Kenna had pleaded guilty to a charge of vehicular manslaughter for the death of her boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow, Outer Banks) after an accident in which she was driving under the influence. She’s returned to Laramie to see her 5-year-old daughter Diem (Zoe Kosovic), to whom she gave birth in prison and whom she has never known. The little girl has been raised by Scotty’s loving parents Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford), who blame Kenna for their son’s death and refuse to let her have anything to do with her little girl.
The romance element comes in the form of the hunky, good-hearted Ledger (Tyriq Withers, Him, I Know What You Did Last Summer), whom Kenna meets when she stops by the bar he owns after a long day of job searching. The two form an instant connection, but what Kenna doesn’t know is that Ledger was Scotty’s best friend and now lives across the street from Diem, with whom he’s formed a loving bond. Despite the fact that Scotty was engaged to be married to Kenna, she had never met Ledger because he was away starting a career in the NFL. It’s but one of many contrived plot elements that you just have to go with.
Another one is that she and Ledger, who hires her to work weekends at his bar, form a friendship and then romantic relationship that he desperately attempts to keep secret from Scotty’s parents. The subterfuge leads to several strained sequences, such as Ledger frantically heading off Grace and Diem before they enter the supermarket where Kenna works and Kenna fleeing the bar in the pouring rain when Grace and Patrick stop by unexpectedly.
It’s all rather silly when you stop to think about it, but director Vanessa Caswill and co-screenwriters Lauren Levine and Hoover (the latter, who also produced, writing one of her screen adaptations for the first time) manage to effectively sweep you into the melodramatic proceedings. You do, however, have to overlook such hokey elements as Kenna’s voiceover narration at the film’s beginning that sets up the story and then promptly disappears. Ditto her voluminous journals, in which she writes letters to the dead Scotty, one of which becomes a major plot element.
It helps that the characters are all sympathetic and appealingly played, with Monroe terrific as the beleaguered Kenna, desperate to meet her daughter, and the charismatic Withers making the most of his character’s agonizing over his torn loyalties. Graham and Whitford bring quiet emotional authenticity to their roles, with the former particularly moving in the final act.
Also fine are country singer Lainey Wilson (Yellowstone) as Kenna’s supportive co-worker and child actress Kosovic, whose adorability quotient is off the charts. Seventeen-year-old Monika Myers makes a strong impression as Lady Diana, Kenna’s neighbor with Down syndrome, whose unfiltered comments serving as comic relief prove more than a little cringey. Although it’s appropriate for a film at which you often find yourself cringing before surreptitiously wiping your eyes during its heartwarming conclusion.
