Regretting You is yet another movie in the growing list of Colleen Hoover’s books-turned-into-film adaptation list. This movie features a slew of talent, with Allison Williams, Mckenna Grace, Dave Franco, Mason Thames, Willa Fitzgerald, and Scott Eastwood.
But unfortunately, Regretting You kind of feels like a bit of a rip off of the 2010 romcom, Life as We Know It, sans any sort of originality or character.
After a tragic accident takes away Morgan Grant’s (Allison Williams) husband Chris Grant (Scott Eastwood), and her sister Jenny Davidson (Willa Fitzgerald) she is left to pick up the pieces of herself and those around her. This loss also greatly impacts Clara (Mckenna Grace), the daughter of Morgan and Chris, and Jonah Sullivan (Dave Franco), Jenny’s partner and father of their newborn baby. The situation gets even more complicated when Morgan and Jonah find out their partners were having an affair.
Regretting You marketed itself as a film of self discovery, grief, love, betrayal, and forgiveness. But this film strayed a little too far away from the entire point, or maybe it was just trying to hit too many themes.
In what seems to be an effort to bring back the genre of romantic dramedies from the 2010s, this film falls flat. What was so great about those types of movies over a decade ago was how fully rounded these characters felt, which in turn made you care more. What’s missing from this film is a reason as to why we should care. Maybe there’s missing context from the book that explains the growth and authenticity from these characters. But regardless, it is something that clearly hasn’t translated well from the book to the movie.
And while most of these characters should be in a process of mourning, you never really feel like anything they’re saying has a layer of truth. Their big monologues feel meaningless because we barely saw any of their relationships with these people prior to the accident. Even romantic scenes in the film felt like they came out of nowhere other than the one mention of “their past” and their feelings towards one another way back when (and this can be applied to both couples in the movie). The mother daughter relationship also barely feels real, even though it’s supposed to be a significant part of the plot and overarching story. All you really know is that Morgan is a little bit strict, and scrapbooks with Clara every so often.
Although a positive is that Dave Franco playing a yearning hopeless romantic is quite endearing. A sub par script didn’t lend him too much to work with, but he was believable. Likewise with Mason Thames, playing the Miller, the mysterious and somewhat rebellious teen out for Clara’s heart, against Morgan’s wishes. But unfortunately the female leads never felt like they got the same type of grace, with little or no development to their characters. Especially Morgan, where her arc felt more centred around Jonah rather than her own daughter or even her own passions; with her journey of self love being demoted to a montage scene.
The big reveal, where Clara finds out that her father and her auntie were having an affair particularly felt like an after thought. This secret her mother had been keeping from her for 90% of the film, to finally be revealed in a short scene is underwhelming. There’s no big outburst of emotions or questions or anger. Instead, after a short moment of confusion and sadness from Clara, we cut to her being asked out to prom by Miller in a romantic and overly cheesy gesture.
For lack of a better term, Regretting You felt sloppy. You can feel them try to bring back the same energy of the romcoms of the past, with all the right tropes scattered throughout, but its big downfall is that none of the characters felt fleshed out enough to be believable. The dialogue also felt clunky and lazy, which obviously didn’t aid these actors’ talents. But it does get some brownie points for some wholesome moments and funny bits.
