Over the past several years, Colleen Hoover has become an indisputable force in the modern entertainment landscape. The prolific writer has achieved immense success, acclaim, and even controversy in recent years, with film adaptations such as “It Ends With Us” and “Regretting You.”
The latest in the ever-lengthening line of cinematic adaptations of Hoover’s work is director Vanessa Caswill’s “Reminders of Him.” Interestingly, while Hoover has technically been involved with every adaptation thus far in one way or another, “Reminders of Him” is the first time that the writer has served as an actual screenwriter for the film. This, of course, raises a fascinating question: can Colleen Hoover effectively adapt her own stories for the screen?
TOP FIVE THINGS ABOUT “REMINDERS OF HIM”
5. An Improved Structure
On the off chance that you, unlike me, have not seen the previous adaptations of Hoover’s literary works, allow me to summarize them for you with three simple words: not very good. It Ends With Us, all behind-the-scenes controversy aside, is a completely passable film with a couple of occasional creative strokes that really work, but is largely lackluster. Regretting You, on the other hand, was outright awful and featured next to no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
So heading into Reminders of Him, I didn’t exactly have the highest of hopes. However, to Hoover and her co-writer Lauren Levine’s credit, this film features a much stronger premise and far better execution than those previous releases. It’s also worth noting that the structure of the film has been adjusted pretty substantially from the book, streamlining it in a way that is effective and occasionally articulate. This bodes well for Hoover as a writer, especially when it comes to adapting her own work, demonstrating that she is not afraid to make some pretty big changes to the source material if it helps craft a better story for the given medium.
4. Worst: One-Note Characters
The core story of Reminders of Him revolves around the two central characters of Kenna (as played by Maika Monroe) and Ledger (as played by Tyriq Withers). But, as with any story of this nature, the film’s periphery is inevitably populated by a whole litany of supporting characters. Many of these characters are even played by great actors, and yet none of them are able to rise above anything more than cardboard cutouts.
To even call characters like the grieving parents of Scotty (the former love interest of Kenna, who was killed in a car accident in which she was driving, which provides the central tragic thrust for the whole story) two-dimensional feels like a stretch. They are simply defined by a singular trait or emotion (i.e., they’re sad) and nothing else. Similarly, there’s an entire literal community of characters we are introduced to at Kenna’s new apartment complex, as well as a whole staff of workers at Ledger’s bar, and they are all reduced to perfunctory players at best.
3. Worst: Hoover-isms Galore
Every creative has distinctive hallmarks that come to define their work. This is far from a bad thing. But with Hoover, she has become such a prolific literary writer that many of these narrative and aesthetic preferences have risen to monotonous, repetitive clichés. Hoover-isms, if you will.
Even if you’re not reading Hoover’s books and are only watching the film adaptations of her work, these defining traits are still blindingly apparent. If Reminders of Him was the first Hoover adaptation out of the gate, maybe this wouldn’t seem so egregious. But following in the footsteps of It Ends With Us and Regretting You makes Reminders of Him’s indulgences play all the worse.
Hoover-isms that are present here include flashbacks to when characters are teenagers, explorations of childhood trauma stemming from a singular accident or incident of abuse, dudes in the street yelling at each other and someone throwing a punch, a will-they-won’t-they relationship with years’ worth of baggage involved, pregnancy and/or a young child as a mechanic of the plot rather than an actual character, etc. Turn it into a drinking game and get blitzed midway through Reminders of Him. It’ll make for an immersive viewing experience.
2. Worst: The “Freakin’ Pigeon”
The road from Hoover’s initial conception of this story to audiences attending Reminders of Him this weekend in theaters has been a long and winding one, with numerous stages of iteration in between. From the editors of the book, to Levine’s role as a co-writer, to Caswill’s own role as director, to the editing process of the film and beyond, Hoover and her collaborators have had to make and remake many of these creative choices over and over again. Theoretically, this should have provided everyone involved ample opportunities to change things that weren’t working. And yet, through it all, the “freakin’ pigeon” element of the story has somehow, inexplicably, survived and made it to the big screen.
The “freakin’ pigeon” thread throughout Reminders of Him starts as an exceedingly grating, unfunny, flat-out cringe-inducing joke (the teenage versions of two characters get so high they think they see a pigeon) and then the film quadruples down on it. Not only do we have to sit through multiple iterations of this bit throughout the film, but the film then attempts to use a literal visualization of this thing as the emotional culmination of its whole story. It clearly thinks the pigeon is its “feather floating in the wind” moment from Forrest Gump, but I am remorseful to inform everyone who thought this was the case that they could not be more horribly wrong. The whole pigeon bit never fails to grind the entire film to a halt.
1. Strong Lead Performances
Reminders of Him’s quality undoubtedly ebbs and flows across the course of its runtime, but all things considered, I found that when it’s able to really hone in on the lead characters, it works. Caswill’s direction is sound, Hoover and Levine’s script provides ample material, and both Monroe and Withers deliver strong performances. Specifically, Monroe more than earns her keep here, going above and beyond the call of duty and really imbuing Kenna with pathos and pain beyond her years.
As a result, the key difference between It Ends With Us or Regretting You and this latest Hoover adaptation is that the central relationship really does work, and that helps bolster the entire effort.
RGM GRADE
(C-)
Overall, Reminders of Him feels like a step in the right direction for Hoover adaptations. There’s still plenty about it that doesn’t work, but with Hoover on screenwriting duty, the film is able to better preserve the heart and integrity of the central relationship and translate that to the screen thanks to great performances and capable direction.
Here’s hoping that the unyielding conveyor belt of Hoover adaptations still to come takes more cues from this film rather than the absolutely dreadful wretch that was
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