Reminders of Him (2026) Universal/Drama RT: 114 minutes Rated PG-13 (sexual content, strong language, drug content, some violent content, brief partial nudity) Director: Vanessa Caswill Screenplay: Colleen Hoover and Lauren Levine Music: Tom Howe Cinematography: Tim Ives Release date: March 13, 2026 (US) Cast: Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford, Lainey Wilson, Jennifer Robertson, Zoe Kosovic, Nicholas Duvernay, Monika Myers, Hilary Jardine, Laird Reghenas.
Rating: ** ½
It’s official. Author Colleen Hoover has claimed the throne once occupied by Nicholas Sparks. From 1999 to 2016, 11 of his novels were adapted for the big screen starting with Message in a Bottle and ending with The Choice. Now Hollywood has turned its attention to Hoover. So far, we’ve gotten cinematic treatments of It Ends with Us (2024) and Regretting You (2025). The former grossed $148.5M while the latter took in $49M. Not too shabby, I guess.
The latest Hoover novel to hit the big screen is Reminders of Him. It’s another romantic melodrama, this time centering on a young woman recently released from prison. Kenna Rowan (Monroe, Longlegs) returns home to Laramie, WY after serving time for killing her boyfriend Scotty (Pankow, Outer Banks) in a car accident. She carries with her tremendous guilt because he was the one, the big love of her life. Now all she wants is to meet the daughter she gave birth to shortly after her sentencing. The girl’s guardians, Scotty’s still-grieving parents Grace (Graham, Gilmore Girls) and Patrick (Whitford, The West Wing), won’t allow it. They’re still understandably angry.
Romance enters the equation in the form of Ledger (Withers, I Know What You Did Last Summer), local hipster bar owner and Scotty’s best friend. He’s been helping to raise the little girl Diem (Kosovic) since the tragedy. Kenna shows up at his bar looking for a job. He doesn’t recognize her right away which explains why he flirts with her. Ledger realizes who she is when she shows up at the parents’ house to try and meet her kid. He drags her away and takes her back to the motel where she’s been living since she got back. He warns her to stay away. The problem is he can’t stay away from her. It isn’t too, too long before they start seeking comfort in each other’s arms.
The situation presents Ledger with a huge dilemma. How can he tell his best friend’s parents he loves the woman that caused their son’s death? Now you’d think the writers, Hoover and Lauren Levine, would spend time on this part of the story. It’s fairly significant. They don’t. Their screenplay is rather unfocused. It covers a lot of ground in the space of just under two hours. No plot thread is developed as fully as it should be. Of course, there’s Kenna attempting to rebuild her life after six years in prison. She has a hard time finding a job. Nobody wants to hire an ex-con. She needs to prove she’s responsible so she can finally meet her daughter. The grandparents need to find a way to forgive Kenna so they can deal with their own grief. There’s also a subplot involving Kenna’s friendship with an intellectually disabled girl (model Myers) who also lives at the motel. This is all in addition to the flashbacks showing Kenna and Scotty’s relationship. As you can see, it’s a lot and that’s not even all of it.
Character development isn’t much better. We learn nothing of Kenna’s past. It’s mentioned in passing that she grew up poor and has no family to speak of. That’s it. All we see is the broken woman trying to fix herself. Ledger (gee, I wonder who he’s named after?) isn’t handled much better. We know he and Scotty were childhood chums. We know he lived (and still lives) right across the street. Where’s his family? Did they neglect him? Abandon him? Die? We don’t know. It’s never explained. Basically what we get in Reminders of Him is a bunch of one-dimensional characters with maybe one or two defining traits.
The performances in Reminders of Him are serviceable with the exception of Monroe. She brings a bit of gravitas to Kenna. We feel her grief and guilt over Scotty. We feel her anguish and anger about being kept away from Diem. She sells it all convincingly. Withers, on the other hand, is completely wooden. He makes Channing Tatum look like the model of emotiveness. Kosovic tends to be cloying as the innocent child in the middle of all the drama. I couldn’t understand half of what she said. As for the rest of the cast, they do okay with what little they have to work with regarding their characters. They’re more character types than anything else.
What really shocked me about Reminders of Him is that there’s no big plot twist. Melodramas like this usually have some kind of big reveal that changes the game. There’s nothing like that here. Not only that, it isn’t until well into the film (close to the end, in fact) that we find out exactly what happened the night Scotty died. It’s a sad story, but nothing shocking.
Directed by Vanessa Caswill (Love at First Sight), Reminders of Him is as schmaltzy as soapy melodramas get. It’s plenty flawed, but I kind of like it. Call it a guilty pleasure. The drama, while unfocused, is effective. I like the expansive rustic setting in the Rockies. This means a lot of beautiful scenery in fields or by rivers. It’s better than the usual big city setting. It’s a good-looking movie. I think its intended audience will like this chick flick. At the very least, it will tide Hoover’s fans over until the next adaptation- Verity starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson- this October.
