After a tragic accident, Morgan and her daughter Clara seek to find ways to balance the fragments of what is left behind as they come to terms with the life changing news.
From a book written by Colleen Hoover, published in 2019 who also wrote It Ends With Us – which had its dramatic cinematic release in 2024 – comes another tale of angst, heartbreak with some moments of joy. Directed by Josh Booke (The Fault In Our Stars) we are delivered yet another slice of life in a world where happiness and laughter are unfortunately overshadowed by sadness and grief.
Starring Allison Williams and Scott Eastwood as Morgan and Chris Grant, we are quickly enlightened to the fact that Morgan is pregnant with Clara whom we are presented with after a time jump 17 years later. Whereupon we find that Morgan’s sister Jenny Davidson played by Willa Fitgerald has been having an affair behind the back of her long term boyfriend Jonah Sullivan played by Dave Franco. So far so good, so to speak.
Regretting You is a twisty turny vehicle written by Colleen who apparently knew her finale to the story and therefore seems to have worked backwards to achieve her end goal. The film seeks to find solace in the compassion which follows life changing events; which happen very quickly within the beginning of the film. The premise is good and the storyline flows from scene to scene with each character achieving their need leaving us needing little extra within the script, although a tighter written storyline would have sped up the 2-hour runtime and tightened some frayed ends. Many have judged this screenplay to be complicated and crass, I personally do not, though to keep a storyline tight we must avoid needless characters who have little or no requirement to be in a scene. The story therefore is not so far-fetched and mostly, though not thoroughly, well thought through, but also far from perfect.
What this film is actually about is how one may react to the news that a husband has been unfaithful and a daughter has been left without one of her parents. However, the problems arise with the actors and the whole cinematic experience itself. Chemistry in such a tale is paramount to make us really believe in what we are witnessing. We must be invested in the premise and feel their joy or indeed pain as they live through their experiences. As you may have guessed, this is somewhat lacking. What is loose within the script is also loose with our actors. The onscreen interaction seems forced and false with all involved. Even with the younger characters of Clara and the apparently cool kid of school Miller Adams, as played by Mason Thames – who are an item off screen – the spark is not quite there.
Within romantic films, the outcome is the ‘living happily ever after’, and in this there is actually a neat twist that is somehow unexpected throughout the film. To get the most from any film worth watching, seeing it twice is the minimum so as not to miss the smaller details the first time around. The second time after knowing the outcome, was in fact quite hard work and left me with a void of what could have been with far better actors or a less messy and forced screenplay.
Colleen Hoover’s written works are massively popular online with the TikTok crowd and I have to say this is where they should stay. Regretting You doesn’t really require the large screen for her offerings and I shall avoid the obvious ending here.
Author: Piers, Maidstone Store
