‘Reminders Of Him’ review: Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers star in predictable, shallow adaptation of Colleen Hoover novel

Dir: Vanessa Caswill. US. 2026. 114mins

Adaptations of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novels focus on their emotionally charged subject matter, resulting in pictures rippling with melodrama and tearjerking sentimentality. Like It Ends With Us and Regretting You, Reminders Of Him is a fraught love story, which stars Maika Monroe as a woman with a terrible secret and Tyriq Withers as the man who looks beyond her past to see the good person she is deep down. But although the two leads have a steamy rapport, their chemistry cannot overcome a predictable and shallow saga about grief and second chances.

Total lack of nuance 

Universal releases Reminders Of Him globally from March 11, looking to repeat the commercial success of the big-screen versions of It Ends With Us ($351m worldwide) and Regretting You ($90m). This third adaptation, which will be followed by this fall’s Verity starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, should find a sizeable audience among date-night crowds.

Kenna (Monroe) has returned to her Wyoming hometown, hoping to put her tragic past behind her. As we learn through flashbacks, she caused a fatal car crash that killed her beloved boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow) and, because she was under the influence, she was sentenced to prison for seven years, giving birth to her daughter Diem while incarcerated. Kenna longs to finally reunite with Diem (Zoe Kosovic), who has been raised by Scotty’s despondent parents Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford). But she also must make amends with Scotty’s best friend Ledger (Withers), who like Grace and Patrick, has not forgiven Kenna for what she did.

Director Vanessa Caswill, who previously helmed 2023 feature Love At First Sight, sets in motion a familiar redemption arc as lowly Kenna moves into a grimy motel, forced to start her life over. Whether it’s with Scotty’s angry parents or the wary Ledger, who feels guilty for not being around more before Scotty’s death, Kenna recognises that her hopes for reconciliation are faint. But the programmatic screenplay co-written by Hoover — the first time she’s had a hand in one of her adaptation’s scripts — ensures that, all too easily, Kenna will have her wish come true.

Reminders Of Him’s grave weakness is its total lack of nuance in what should be a complex exploration of mourning. Kenna is devastated that she killed Scotty and lost custody of Diem, while Ledger – a former football player who was away pursuing his NFL dreams when Scotty fell in love with Kenna – is now like a father to Diem, making amends for his absence in his friend’s life. And Scotty’s parents have channeled their sorrow into anger at Kenna, refusing to let her get near Diem. But these potentially tangled layers of rage and sadness prove far less complicated because, as the film’s flashbacks reveal, Kenna’s accident was more of a shocking fluke occurrence than an indication of a larger character flaw. As far as Reminders Of Him is concerned, all Kenna needs to do is convince those around her that she is not a monster and is deeply remorseful about what happened.

Consequently, Caswill’s positioning of Kenna as a blameless victim who honourably served her prison sentence leaves the film feeling oddly frictionless as we wait around for the other characters to forgive her. Scotty’s parents are portrayed as unreasonably bitter, leaving Graham and Whitford to give thuddingly one-dimensional performances. Withers has better luck as Ledger, who quickly senses that Kenna shouldn’t be judged solely on the basis of one awful night.

Ledger and Kenna crackle with flirty energy, inevitably creating tension between him and Scotty’s parents, who have loved him like a son since they lost their own. But rather than having honest conversations about their grief, the characters retreat into cliched dramatic moments, usually involving storming out of the room or staring intently while being pelted by heavy rain.

Monroe is probably best known as the star of smart horror films such as It Follows and Longlegs, so this pivot to sad-eyed romantic drama is initially intriguing. And one could argue that her previous characters’ terrifying circumstances were perfect training to play a haunted woman doomed to relive her past sins. Monroe certainly possesses the necessary grit and melancholy, but, because the film refuses to let the audience see Kenna as anything other than a saint, there’s a solemn blankness to her.

Reminders Of Him preaches the importance of forgiveness, but usually that requires the main character to have first forgiven herself after doing painstaking soul-searching. Caswill is so invested in her story’s happy ending that she bypasses those crucial narrative beats that would make such a resolution legitimately cathartic.