Written by Corynn Winston
Going into Reminders of Him, the expectation is pretty clear. A story written by Colleen Hoover is supposed to make you feel something. Her books are known for being emotional and character-driven, so when one of them gets adapted into a film, you expect that same emotional weight to carry over to the screen. The movie definitely tries to capture that tone, but it only really works to a certain extent.
One of the first things that stands out is how staged a lot of the shots feel. The film looks polished, but sometimes that polish works against it. Emotional scenes feel very carefully placed instead of natural, almost like the movie is trying to tell you when you’re supposed to feel something rather than letting the moment happen organically. Instead of pulling you into the story, some of those scenes make you aware that you’re watching something that feels constructed.
The movie also leans very heavily into sadness. The entire story is built around the tragedy involving Scotty (Rudy Pankow) and how that loss affects everyone, which makes sense narratively, but the film rarely allows that tone to breathe. Scotty’s death is consistently talked about as this heavy emotional weight by almost every character. The movie attempts to break up that sadness with a couple of reflective moments, like when Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) removes the memorial from the roadside or when Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers) talks about the memories of hanging out in the treehouse. Those scenes feel like they’re meant to bring some warmth into the story, but instead, they come across a little awkward because the film has spent so much time pushing sadness that those lighter moments don’t feel fully natural.
Because of that tone, the movie almost forgets to give the audience any emotional balance. Not until the very end do we get what actually feels like a moment of happiness between Kenna, her daughter Diem (Zoey Kosovic), and Ledger. That scene finally gives the audience a glimpse of something hopeful, but it arrives so late in the movie that it doesn’t quite land as strongly as it could have.
Another issue is how many characters the movie introduces without really developing them. Throughout the story, people appear who seem like they should have a bigger role, but they’re only on screen briefly before the film moves on. Even smaller elements like Kenna’s apartment introduce people and situations that feel like they could have been explored more, but instead they’re just there for a moment and then gone. It leaves you wondering why some of those characters were included in the first place.
The relationship between Kenna and Ledger also doesn’t completely work. Their romance feels rushed and a little forced. At times, it feels like the movie jumps from them barely knowing each other to suddenly being deeply invested in one another emotionally. That shift happens so quickly that it doesn’t feel natural. Instead of watching a relationship slowly develop, it sometimes feels like the film is pushing the romance forward just because the story needs it to happen.
That being said, the strongest part of the film is still Maika Monroe’s performance as Kenna. She really does a solid job portraying the vulnerability and emotional weight of the character. Even when parts of the story feel uneven, Monroe manages to communicate Kenna’s internal struggle through small expressions and quieter moments. Her performance is probably the closest the movie gets to capturing the emotional complexity that made the book resonate with readers.
Still, by the time Reminders of Him‘s two-hour runtime ends, it’s hard not to feel like the film didn’t quite do the story justice. The pieces are there—the emotional premise, the strong central performance, the themes about forgiveness and redemption—but the execution never fully comes together.
Instead of leaving the theater feeling emotionally overwhelmed the way a Colleen Hoover story usually does, the movie mostly left me thinking about all the ways it could have been stronger. And for a film that spends two hours building up its emotional story, that’s a little disappointing.
