The 2024 film It Ends With Us was a hit, but beset by controversy. Last year’s Regretting You wasn’t a bad movie, but it only did middling business. Now, Reminders of Him, the third adaptation of a novel by Colleen Hoover, tries to avoid peril — both financial and reputational.
Romance By Way of Tragedy in Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him
The chief merit of Hoover’s stories — at least the few I’ve seen to via film adaptations — is the presence of problems that border on realism. Both Regretting You and Reminders of Him hinge on fatal car crashes; in the latter case, it’s a tragedy that even dabbles in social commentary.
Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) and Scotty Landry (Rudy Pankow) are young lovers in Laramie, Wyoming; their love seems real enough, and marriage is on the way. When they (barely) indulge on Landry’s birthday — splitting a weed gummy after skinny-dipping at a picturesque lake — a single-vehicle crash results. Rowan walks away to find help, passing out due to a concussion; Landry dies.
Rowan goes to prison for vehicular manslaughter, where she gives birth to a daughter, conceived just before the accident. The child is taken to be raised by Landry’s devastated parents (Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford). When Rowan is released, she struggles to find employment and stability as an ex-convict — and is haunted by both the titular reminders of her past and the close presence of a daughter she’s legally unable to visit.
While her financial woes quickly resolve, there’s some merit to depicting them at all; in a genre defined by impossible, Hallmark-appropriate dream jobs and escapism, Reminders of Him at least nods to real life.
Sparks Fly, Interspersed With Tears
Rowan runs into Landry’s best friend, an impossibly kind former NFL player with the equally improbable name Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers). And wouldn’t you know it: Ward has become both a surrogate father to Rowan’s daughter and a source of comfort for the mourning parents. With a mix of obligation, guilt and frustration, he first offers Rowan aid … then more.
Meanwhile, he must keep both his new affair and Rowan’s activities secret from the family. This shouldn’t be taken as more than a sitcom-level obstacle. Reminders of Him moves slowly from point A to point B with the subtlety of a car crash. Thanks to the chemistry between Withers and Monroe — who, vitally for the genre, are easily the most attractive people to ever set foot in Wyoming — the uninspired plot proceeds as a watchable diversion.
Hoover adapts her own screenplay with the help of collaborator Lauren Levine; Vanessa Caswill, mainly a director of British television miniseries, helms the film without much subtlety (and with a cloying, obvious score). On its merits, Reminders of Him doesn’t add up to much. Stray details and moments, however, make it good enough for a slightly disinterested date night.
Sure, There Are Other Movies Out — But It’s Oscar Weekend!
Hollywood’s attention isn’t on box-office returns this weekend, as one of the most unpredictable and twisting Oscar campaigns in recent memory comes to a conclusion. (Timothee Chalamet should count himself lucky that voting ended before he defamed several art forms.) The big show is Sunday night, airing at 7 p.m. on ABC and Hulu. Read our predictions to help with your Oscar betting pool
A24 presents undertone — yes, deliberately uncapitalized — an atmospheric horror movie about a woman beset by terrifying noises. Early reviews are positive; writing for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico says, “This is a film that doesn’t feel the need to explain itself. Nightmares rarely do.” The film is in wide release now … Want one last-minute bit of Oscars catchup? The nominated documentary Mister Nobody Against Putin is in more theaters this weekend. Netflix’s The Perfect Neighbor is widely expected to take the prize, but Mister Nobody Against Putin is the only other nominee with a chance, according to oddsmakers
Didn’t think this one would get an anniversary re-release, but nostalgia is a powerful thing: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze returns to theaters this week for its 35th birthday. (If nothing else, that’s the one where Vanilla Ice turns up to perform Ninja Rap.)
Story by Sean Collier
Photos Courtesy of Universal Pictures
