Director Vanessa Caswill turns Colleen Hoover’s bestseller into a redemption romance led by Maika Monroe as a woman fighting to reconnect with the daughter she lost.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Is Colleen Hoover, aka Coho, the new Nicholas Sparks? Based on a 2022 novel by the BookTok-favored author, who also wrote “It Ends With Us,” which was adapted to the screen with Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in 2024, “Reminders of Him” features “Scream Queen” Maika Monroe (“Longlegs”) in a romantic drama for a change, and it’s good for her, even if the film is a country soap opera.
Monroe plays Kenna Rowan, a young woman who has served five years in prison for a car crash that killed her lover and the father of her daughter, Scotty Landry (Rudy Pankow). In the opening scenes, Kenna returns to her hometown (unlike in the book, the Canada-shot film is set in Laramie, Wyoming), where her daughter, Diem Landry (Zoe Kosovic), has been adopted by her grandmother, Grace (Lauren Graham), and grandfather, Patrick Landry (Bradley Whitford).
Scotty’s grieving parents blame Kenna for their son’s death. The court has denied Kenna’s rights to her daughter. Scotty’s best friend, Ledger Ward (a strong Tyriq Withers, “Him”), who lives across the street from the Landrys, has developed a paternal relationship with Diem. Kenna gets a job bagging groceries and a room at a shabby motel, where she befriends a young woman with Down Syndrome (a very good Monika Myers). Kenna keeps journals full of letters to Scotty, all of which begin with the salutation “Dear Scotty.” She recalls past events that we experience as flashbacks, charting how she meets Scotty, their blossoming love, the fatal accident and the birth of their child after Kenna’s conviction. Kenna also supplies voiceovers. These different narrative techniques give the film a novelistic heft, even if the story is full of obvious hooks and contrivances (i.e., Ledger doesn’t know what Kenna looks like).
Without a car or a phone, Kenna walks the length of the town with majestic, snow-covered mountains visible in the distance in her shorts and cowboy boots, seeking a job. She goes to a bar that Ledger, a former NFL player, owns and oversees. He and she become obviously attracted to one another.
Every minute of “Reminders of Him” is shored up by country-style, romantic pop songs by the likes of Noah Cyrus, Sabrina Carpenter, Carlos Zatch and Harry Styles. Director Vanessa Caswill (“Love at First Sight”) keeps things rolling along. She has a smart, light touch that helps us accept some of the story’s more contrived elements. In addition to Kenna’s cowboy boots, the mountains and her feisty sidekick, we get a vintage Chevy truck painted bright orange that once belonged to Scotty, fruit salad, snow cones, a jungle gym, sparklers, a Mother’s Day event, a kitten named Ivy, a pigeon joke that never (ahem) lands, Coldplay’s “Yellow” and someone singing a cover of “Stand by Me.”
The aforementioned Sparks’ adapted love stories, such as the Nick Cassavetes-directed “The Notebook” (2004), another tale with a journal angle, struck a chord with young audiences, especially couples. I suspect the same will be true of “Reminders of Him.” Monroe captures the fragility and cynicism of formerly incarcerated individuals. She dislikes music because it’s “always sad.” But her Kenna is utterly determined to declare herself to Diem, and thanks to Monroe’s heartfelt turn, we are on Kenna’s side. Withers, who deserves better than “Him” (2025) and “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” brings real yearning and vulnerability to Ledger. He’s also very good with young Kosovic. Country star Lainey Wilson, who is also featured on the soundtrack, is excellent in a too-small part of a Laramie grocery store manager who gives Kenna a break. The film tells the story of two people who learn to like falling in love. It’s as simple as that. Graham and Whitford provide additional gravitas as the grandparents. We know where this is headed from the start. But director Caswill, writers Lauren Levine and Hoover (adapting her novel), and the cast succeed in keeping us interested in how it will get there.
‘Reminders of Him’
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, strong language, drug content, some violent content, and brief partial nudity
Cast: Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow
Director: Vanessa Caswill
Writers: Lauren Levine, Colleen Hoover
Running Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters
Grade: B+
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