REMINDERS OF HIM
(director: Vanessa Caswill; screenwriters: Lauren Levine, Colleen Hoover, based on novel by Hoover; cinematographer: Tim Ives; editor: Michelle Harrison; music: Tom Howe; cast: Maika Monroe (Kenna Rowan), Bradley Whitford (Patrick Landry), Tyriq Withers (Ledger Ward), Lauren Graham (Grace Landry), Jennifer Robertson (Ruth Clayton), Zoe Kosovic (Diem), Lainey Wilson (Amy); Runtime: 114; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Colleen Hoover, Lauren Levine, Gina Matthews; Universal Pictures; 2026)
“Unbearable weepie soap opera melodrama about grief.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
English filmmaker Vanessa Caswill (“Love at First Sight”) directs this predictable and at times unbearable weepie soap opera melodrama about grief and putting one’s life back together after being down. It’s a love story based on the 2022 best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover, and is co-written by Hoover and Lauren Levine.
Kenna (Maika Monroe) is a young woman who when released from prison goes back to her hometown of Laramie, Wyoming (filmed in Calgary), after finishing her five-year vehicular manslaughter sentence for the accidental death of her boyfriend, Scotty (Randy Pankow), while driving drunk and abandoning him while he was still alive.
Kenna is seeking to find a job and to reunite with the 5-year-old daughter Diem (Zoe Kosovic) she never knew, who’s living with Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford), Scotty’s unforgiving folks, who won’t allow her visiting rights.
Scotty’s best friend Ledger (Tyriq Withers), a former NFL football player, someone she never knew, is a local bar owner who meets Kenna in his bar her first night out in town. There’s an attraction between them, but also an awareness on his part not to upset Scotty’s still grieving parents where he lives across the street from them.
Kenna moves into a motel, gets a job as a bagger in a grocery store, adopts a kitten for company and feels uneasy with her ticklish situation.
Through flashbacks we get a picture of where Kenna’s at, and learn that Scotty was no angel but probably was using drugs.
It leads to a cheesy climax (where her crime is revealed for the first time), as Kenna tries facing her past and putting her life back together while writing a journal. Meanwhile, Ledger gradually becomes more receptive to seeing her when he gets to know her better.
The weepie women’s pic benefits from the sympathetic performance by the reputed scream queen Maika Monroe, who is branching out to do more than horror pic roles. Otherwise, it’s a second-rate formulaic sudser that’s overwrought and overly sentimental. It also lacks credibility because the chemistry between the current lovers is lacking.
The target audience is obviously readers of Colleen Hoover, who may like it. For someone like me who hasn’t read the book and probably never will read anything by her, this is a contrived film that turned me off.
REVIEWED ON 3/19/2026 GRADE: C
dennisschwartzreviews.com