Reminders of Him (2026) Film Review: Colleen Hoover's latest is a contrived romance with glints of sincerity
- reeltalkin'
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Seven years ago, Kenna (Maika Monroe) pleaded guilty to manslaughter after she and her boyfriend, Scotty (Rudy Pankow) ended up in a fatal car accident.
Newly released from prison, Kenna is desperate to connect with their young daughter, Diem (Zoe Kosovic) except the girl's grandparents blame Kenna for their son's death and will not have anything to do with her.
With the help of a local bar owner, Ledger (Tyriq Withers), who has become a surrogate father to the little girl, and with whom Kenna begins to develop a romantic relationship with, she attempts to overcome her past mistakes and build a hopeful future.
Directed by Vanessa Caswill, Reminders of Him (2026) is the screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling novel of the same name.
The film's screenplay is a combined effort by Hoover and Lauren Levine, starring familiar faces in the horror genre with Monroe (It Follows, 2014; Longlegs, 2024) and Withers (Him, 2025; I Know What You Did Last Summer, 2025) playing leading roles.
The film also notably features Bradley Whitford (Get Out, 2017; The Cabin in the Woods, 2011) and Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls, 2000-2007) as Diem's grandparents.
Colleen Hoover has recently begun to translate her literary works to cinema, with her other book to screen adaptations It Ends with Us (2024) and Regretting You (2025) receiving mixed reviews upon their release. Her infatuation with romance exhibiting a distinctly tragic edge do appear to allure a certain target audience in young women and girls who can swoon over the 'will they/won't they' storyline and get wrapped up in the shallow melodrama.
This film offers no surprises regarding its premise and typical cliché formulas one can expect from a romantic drama of this caliber, offering viewers a sickly sweet, instantly predictable story designed to play things particularly safe and create an overly feel good final impression.
From the very start, once we are introduced to the down on her luck Kenna attempting to rebuild her life and reconcile with her daughter, the eventual conclusion feels inevitable and overdrawn with little doubt in the viewer's mind of how events will play out.
Every plot contrivance and decision feels purposefully shallow and surface level with just a touch of endearing charm to keep viewers emotionally involved. Kenna's guilt over her involvement in the tragic death of her boyfriend and her supposed sorrow over being separated from her daughter for years are never given the substantial depth they could have received.
The movie introduces interesting ideas revolving around past trauma and tortured or doomed romance, yet it rarely fully follows through with these and remains fairly flat and bland in its execution. This is not helped by the often awfully written script, where characters tend to speak in an unrealistic, deliberately on the nose or fake witty manner which more often than not comes across as clunky and distractingly poor.
Unfortunately, this lack of engagement issue does not end with the faulty screenplay, as the central romance is entirely unconvincing with both actors exhibiting zero levels of romantic chemistry between them.
Monroe is solid in the role of a desperate young mother longing to be with her daughter, but Withers as new love interest, Ledger, lacks emotional depth in his expressions, veering between stoic and mild concern with little else there to invite viewers to truly get to know and understand his character.
For the most part, there is a general sense that many of the performers are simply along for the ride without much commitment. This is certainly not a criticism entirely aimed at the actors, as this overwhelming feeling of drab and dull permeates the majority of the production.
There are a handful of noticeable continuity editing errors which could have quickly been fixed in post production and the sloppy dialogue definitely would have benefitted from an extra proof read.
On the plus side, the movie does have lovely cinematography from the talented Tim Ives, who opts for a warm, inviting colour palette and cosy lighting to bring the setting of a rustic, old-timey American town to life. Beautiful tracking shots over the mountain range and forests surrounding this semi-rural setting create a real, earthy quality to the film's overall tone and texture, making for a pleasant watch on the eye.
Although the film does have its many issues, it also somewhat redeem itself with its endearing down to earth honesty regarding the sensitive, character focused scenes involving Kenna properly meeting her daughter for the first time, after she was immediately taken away following her birth.
The movie's final sequences are genuinely quite moving, with both Caswill and Hoover simply allowing the scene to play out in its own time, not rushing this incredibly significant meeting between a mother and her child.
Young Zoe is a little star in the making, impressing at such a young age by managing to remain focused and thoughtfully involved during this emotionally complex sequence and a tender moment where she crawls into Kenna's lap for a well overdue cuddle with mum will definitely tug on anyone's heartstrings.
It is a real tear jerker ending and does unfortunately further highlight the many pitfalls which have come before it.
Overall, Reminders of Him is a suitably crowd-pleasing contemporary romantic drama which meanders through a paper thin plot to reach its obviously signposted conclusion. The film is perfectly watchable and serviceable with its general visual appeal and genuinely effective heart warming moments, however, the actual romance is very stilted and completely unconvincing.
The film ultimately suffers from a weak screenplay and too much reliance on conventional narrative clichés to carry its convoluted story. Not terrible, but certainly not the swoon worthy romance it wants to be...
Check out the trailer for Reminders of Him (2026) below, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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