★★½ (2½ out of 4)
It never ends for Colleen Hoover. Even after the 2024 film of her mammoth bestseller, “It Ends with Us,” got upstaged by the tabloid-y behind-the-scenes feud between star Blake Lively and actor-director Justin Baldoni, the prolific author barrels on undaunted. Hoover fans, who call themselves CoHorts after her nickname CoHo, are beside themselves this week with the release of “Reminders of Him,” the film version of the 23rd of her 24 novels.
And the drama this time is all on the screen, with Hoover herself collaborating on the screenplay. The woman in crisis is Kenna Rowan, played with grit and grace by Maika Monroe on sabbatical from the screen queen duties that made her a star in such horror hits as “Longlegs” and “It Follows.” Monroe doesn’t shout her feeling in this one. They’re on the inside, like a secret that needs teasing out.
It’s not much of a movie (that saggy midsection hurts), but much credit to actors who know not to overplay their hand. That way feelings ring true, and some even linger.
Says one dude who hits on Kenna: “I’m starting to wonder if you’re the saddest girl I’ve ever met.” He’s not wrong. You’d be sad too if you just did time in prison for seven years for involuntary manslaughter. Kenna and her boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow, charming in flashbacks) had been drinking, but she did the driving when the accident happened. Dazed, Kenna left the scene, barely realizing Scotty was still alive. Whoops.
Did I mention that Kenna was also pregnant? When she gives birth, the baby is taken into custody by Scotty’s parents, played by zesty old pros Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford, who look none too kindly at the woman who left their son to die. Making things worse is that Kenna has lost all legal rights to her little girl, Diem (Zoe Kosivic), who is now five years old.
What happens next isn’t exactly shocking. But Hoover, working with director Vanessa Caswill, provides something better than shock: a core of reality delivered by actors who know how to keep it real even within the boundaries of soap opera.
Set in the picturesque Western town of Laramie, Wyoming (It was shot in Canada but who’s keeping score?), the movie starts spinning when Kenna walks into The Bookstore, a former literary oasis where Kenna and Scotty used to hang out. It’s now a bar, run by heartthrob Ledger (a terrific Tyriq Withers), a former NFL champ forced by a shoulder injury to retire. As it happens in romance novels, and CoHo is not above such crass manipulations, Tarqiq was once Scotty’s bestie. And—wait for it—he’s helping Scotty’s parents raise Diem.
Before you start screaming for someone to revoke Hoover’s poetic license, let these actors beguile you past the usual cliché traps. Monroe and Withers have a natural chemistry. Actually, it sizzles. And when Ledger lies to Kenna about his identity, we forgive him. The unwritten rule of romancinema is that if we want two hotties to connect, let not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments, or however Shakespeare said it.
Hoover can’t compare to the Bard, but she knows when enough is enough in constructing a tearjerker. And it’s her restraint that carries us over the bumps in the script. In the end, “Reminders of Him” is not much of a movie (that saggy midsection hurts), but much credit to actors who know not to overplay their hand. That way the feelings ring true and some even linger. Those CoHorts just might be onto something.