A solid romance with two likable leads.
A lot of these Colleen Hoover adaptations have been made recently, like the TV series “Confess,” the emotional “It Ends With Us “ the immature “Regretting You,” and now, “Reminders of Him.” There’s another adaptation coming out later this year called “Verity,” which will star Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway.
But for now, the main movie of this article is “Reminders of Him,” which basically enters Nicholas Sparks territory, but is actually more honest and mature than “Regretting You.” In fact, it has a good side to itself that is appealing.
Maika Monroe stars as Kenna Rowan, a young woman who served a 7-year prison sentence after a car accident that killed her boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow from “Outer Banks”). As therapy for herself, she has been writing letters to him in her journal. Instead of “Dear Diary,” it’s always “Dear Scotty.”
Now, she returns to her hometown, rents a shabby apartment, and adopts a kitten not for emotional support like Eva Victor in “Sorry Baby,” but as a way for her landlord (Jennifer Robertson) to shave off a few rental fees. But that’s not her biggest issue. She has a few.
1.) She struggles to find a job because either the bosses aren’t hiring at the moment or it’s because of her criminal record. But she’s lucky enough to land a job as a bag girl at a local grocery store.
2.) She gave birth to a girl named Diem (Zoe Kosovic), whom she couldn’t hold after giving birth, and whom Scotty’s parents (Bradley Whitford and Lauren Graham) adopt. And they file a restraining order against Kenna when they find out she’s back in town.
3.) Before the restraining order, Scott’s best friend-the former NLF player turned local bartender Ledgar Ward (Tyriq Withers, remember: he was also a real life wide receiver for the Florida State Seminoles)-prevents her from reuniting with her daughter. He does, however, find pity in her and gives her a job in the back.
4.) Ledgar is able to see through her flaws, and these two fall in love. But what’s going to happen if Scotty’s parents find out?
It irritates me when movie characters don’t know the true difference between “killed” and “murder.” At one point early in the film, Ledger almost labels Kenna a murderer, but his recovering alcoholic buddy and co-worker Roman (Nicholas Duvernay) tells him that “Murder is too strong of a word.” She had zero intentions of getting in that car accident that was fatal for her boyfriend. And there are flashbacks about how it happened and why she would face criminal charges.
Last year, Withers appeared in two crappy movies: “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Him,” both of which made him to be some kind of a proxy. But “Reminders of Him” gets his acting right back on track, like he’s a younger Channing Tatum with his disposition, tone, and built. And he knows how to thrive on the formulas the story has to provide. Even he can smile when the landlord’s daughter Lady Diana (Monica Myers who has Down syndrome) keeps calls him a jerk for not letting Kenna see her daughter.
And Monroe does a good job playing a young woman who has her struggles, but acknowledges that she should earn a second chance at redemption. I can’t imagine what her dead boyfriend’s parents and his best friend have gone through, but I do know that life is too short to harbor hatred. And the movie chooses not to indulge in the anger, but rather give the pathos baby steps into happiness. It’s not always going to be easy, it’s going to be a little corny, but it’s not a miserable movie.
Watching “Reminders of Him,” I was thinking back a decade ago when I saw a powerful drama like “Manchester by the Sea,” which is kind of a similar thing. You know a character returning to a hometown with too many reminders of what has happened. That was a very sad movie, and it had to be. This one is a sad movie, but more uplifting for its target audience. I’m not one of them, but I’d still walk “the length of five football fields” to see it. “Shawshank Redemption” humor here.
