Reminders of Him

Grade: C+

Colleen Hoover, at age 46, has been busy. Her first novel came out in 2012, and she has a few sets of books that are part of a series. If you estimate conservatively (counting each “series” collection as one piece of work), she has released 16 books in 14 years. Reminders of Him is her third movie adaptation in as many years, after last year’s Regretting You and 2024’s It Ends With Us. What Wikipedia tells us: her novels are primarily in the romance and young adult fiction genres. What I can tell you: her stories are absorbing but heavy, rooted in a tragedy and unbelievable coincidence.

I’ll unpack those in a minute, but another staple in the cinematic Hooververse is the questionably constructed flashbacks. They never play convincingly. The “back in time” scenes in Reminders of Him all have unnaturally bright cinematography. One has two key characters getting high and laughing while relaxing on the second level of a backyard playground set. Despite one of them being clean-shaven, to signify that this is “before,” these look like 30-somethings lounging on a kid’s playset. I thought of a production of The Glass Menagerie I once saw, that had two 40+ year olds having dialogue about “the girl I’ve been going steady with.”

One of the ways Reminders of Him could have worked better is if they had kept the narrative chronological. Even if younger actors weren’t used for the early scenes, it would have been less jarring without all the jumping around. Details about a major plot point are fed to us in a piecemeal fashion, as if they’re letting a big cat out of the bag at the end. It didn’t need to be that way.

It opens with Kenna (Maika Monroe from Longlegs), fresh out of prison after serving six years. She is returning to her hometown, after doing time for vehicular manslaughter while under the influence. The passenger who didn’t make it was Scotty, her boyfriend. They had been enjoying a gummy – apparently a strong one. Kenna was newly pregnant with his child, and gave birth to her daughter in prison. She was quickly taken away without even an opportunity for Kenna to hold her, and has been taken care of by Scotty’s parents (Bradley Whitford and Lauren Graham). Scotty’s best friend Ledger (Tyriq Withers from 2025’s Him and I Know What You Did Last Summer) has been a father figure to the little girl, now 5. They adore each other.

You can almost hear Colleen Hoover throwing her literary back out as she comes up with these convoluted, serendipitous plots. Of all the bars in town, Kenna just happens to visit the one run by Ledger. He is romantically interested in her before he finds out who she is, then once he does, he still feels that way. Withers, a gifted actor who is easy on the eyes, does his best as a character with motivations that stretch credulity. He has to juggle his devotion to the girl and her grandparents, along with reconciling his feelings for Kenna despite what happened. Monroe, Whitford, and Graham are always wonderful to see, and they keep the film from being too bad.

Kenna is hired by Ledger as a dishwasher –  relegated to the back of the house, in case her would-have-been in-laws make a surprise appearance. They almost show up at the grocery store where Kenna works part-part-time as a bagger. It becomes a farce when Ledger races against the clock, like Kiefer Sutherland in 24, to stop Whitford, Graham, and the little girl from shopping there. The most unintentionally funny line I’ve heard all year comes from a prison flashback. A fellow inmate who Kenna has never met walks up to her, and her first words are: “Come with me. I’m Ivy.” What follows is a Shawshanky speech about getting busy living, but I couldn’t get past that clunky introduction. Why not lead with your name?

If anything resembling this story has ever happened in real life, it must stir up quite the roller coaster of complicated emotions. The final act, at last, gave me the kind of movie I wanted all along. I was pretty taken in by the last few scenes, where the plot line that interested me the most finally got explored. It’s the most sincere the movie ever gets, stripped free from its Young Adult conventions. I’m still not recommending this; it spends too much time dwelling in the storyline that rings true the least.

There’s already another Hoover movie coming our way. Verity – directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You, Spoiler Alert, The Eyes of Tammy Faye), and starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett – is set for an early October release. I’m optimistic. I managed to enjoy It Ends With Us enough despite its cliches. I really didn’t like the appropriately titled Regretting You. Reminders of Him ranks smack dab in between the previous two. If you want to see Verity, come with me. I’m Mark.

Grade: C+