Reminders of Him (dir. Vanessa Caswill)

by Jack Martin | Mar 14, 2026

Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 114 mins

UK Distributor: Universal Pictures

UK Release Date: 13 March 2026

WHO’S IN REMINDERS OF HIM?

Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford, Lainey Wilson, Jennifer Robertson, Zoe Kosovic, Monika Myers, Hilary Jardine, Nicholas Duvernay

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Vanessa Caswill (director), Colleen Hoover and Lauren Lavine (writers, producers), Gina Matthews (producer), Tom Howe (composer), Tim Ives (cinematographer), Michelle Harrison (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A former convict (Monroe) attempts to reconnect with her old life…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON REMINDERS OF HIM?

After the legal woes following serious allegations on the set of It Ends with Us, and the bafflingly bad misstep that was last year’s Regretting You, the Colleen Hoover cinematic universe seems to be going about as well as the Dark Universe. However, those films were missing one key ingredient: Hoover herself, who allowed other screenwriters to tackle her material for the big screen while sitting back and letting the royalties come flooding in. Not the case with director Vanessa Caswill’s Reminders of Him – an adaptation of Hoover’s 2022 novel – on which the author is firmly credited for the screenplay alongside co-writer Lauren Levine, making this the first true Hoover adaptation in the sense that the writer herself is (re)telling the story the way she originally envisioned it.

But that doesn’t automatically make Reminders of Him a good movie. While it is nowhere near as terrible as Regretting You, the faults of this one more so lie in the somewhat trite story that Hoover has concocted, one that is full of contrivances and overblown melodrama which might be enough to make even Nicholas Sparks roll his eyes. However, unlike the other Hoover adaptations, this one seems to have its heart much more in the right place, which again doesn’t mean it works as a whole but at least makes it a bit more palatable, even if the final product is more mediocre than miserable.

The story begins as Kenna (Maika Monroe), a young woman who’s just spent seven years in prison, arrives back in her Wyoming hometown where she intends to get her life back on track. Her chief goal is to reunite with her five-year-old daughter Diem (Zoe Kosovic), whom she gave birth to whilst incarcerated and has been raised by her grandparents Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford), who themselves are the grieving parents of Kenna’s boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow) who was killed in a car accident that Kenna was ultimately convicted of. Needless to say, neither Grace nor Patrick are willing to even consider letting their granddaughter anywhere near the person responsible for their son’s death, putting Kenna in an increasingly devastating position as she struggles to find work and develop close friendships. Although, after crossing paths with Ledger (Tyriq Withers), a former NFL player turned local bar owner who was also Scotty’s best friend, Kenna finds herself on a journey of acceptance and – inevitably, for this is a Colleen Hoover story – love.

Considering that this is her first go at writing for the screen, Hoover manages the transition decently enough, though not without a few signs that this is an experienced author working within a wholly different storytelling medium. There are stretches where the dialogue feels a bit too descriptive, ultimately doing what the visuals are primarily there for and telling the viewer about these characters and their inner turmoil rather than showing them in a compelling fashion. Certain plot strands are also introduced before being dropped entirely, most of them involving supporting characters who ultimately add very little to the central story other than generic backing for the main protagonists, while the primary conflict is often presented in astounding black-and-white with rather cartoonishly sympathetic and not-so-sympathetic depictions of both sides, and is one of those where so much of it could be (and occasionally is) solved by mere communication between the affected parties. In book form, I imagine that it’s all a lot more expanded upon than it ever could be within an under two-hour movie, but in the latter format Hoover struggles to find a comfortable filmic rhythm for her own story.

Director Caswill is similarly struggling to disguise the contrivances of Hoover’s story. There isn’t a whole lot wrong with the filmmaking itself, aside from a few odd decisions regarding the blocking and shot compositions in some scenes as well as some strangely framed long takes that don’t feel wholly necessary (though even all of that might as well be Oscar-winning cinematography compared to the unappealingly digitised look of Regretting You). But Caswill isn’t a strong enough director to draw you in despite its narrative fumbles, simply letting most of the actors speak the dialogue without adding much to the material, or in the case of Withers – who between this and Him is fast proving himself to be not much more than a well-chiselled plank of wood – failing to establish any genuine chemistry with most of the actors he’s appearing opposite, including a child actor who through no fault of their own is directed to be as cloyingly cutesy as possible.

But while it isn’t an especially great film, Reminders of Him does have a few bright spots. Maika Monroe is very good here as the only cast member who actually has screen presence, which more than helps her work wonders with otherwise lacking material and resources. There are also certain scenes, specifically towards the end, which are genuinely effective not just because they’re performed well, especially by Monroe, but also because they’re rare instances where Hoover and Levine are able to convey the heart that hasn’t been entirely present throughout most of the preceding film. Those things alone make it a far more tolerable Hoover adaptation than Regretting You, but not quite to the level of It Ends with Us which remains the strongest of these films to date (though it is concerning that the film directed by an alleged harasser is the better one in this scenario).

Instead, Reminders of Him sits somewhere in the middle, not good enough to appeal to the masses but also not bad enough to drive them all away. It’s mostly just mediocre, or at the very least not one you’d want to have your own reminders of.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Reminders of Him is a largely mediocre Colleen Hoover adaptation that, despite its heart being in the right place and a strong lead turn by Maika Monroe, fails to disguise the contrivances of this particular story with some unsteady filmmaking ironically calling more attention to what doesn’t work than what does.