Reminders of Him: Movie Review

Cast: Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Lainey Wilson, Bradley Whitford, Lauren Graham
Director: Vanessa Caswill

The latest adaptation of author Colleen Hoover's dramas has one secret weapon in its arsenal - that of Longlegs actor Maika Monroe.

She plays Kenna Rowen, who, as screeds of voiceover exposition explains, is heading back to her hometown of Laramie after serving 7 years in jail for the vehicular manslaughter of her boyfriend Scott one fateful night.

Unable to find a job, she longs to get enough financial support so that she can visit her daughter, whom she gave birth to in prison and who's now ensconced with her grandparents (Whitford and Graham), who are violently opposed to her ever having access.

But after forming an initially uneasy with Scott's best friend Ledger (Withers), a former Denver Broncos player who ends up back in Laramie and as a guardian to Kenna's daughter...

Reminders of Him is exactly what you'd expect from a Hoover drama.

But playing in choppy parts and drifting from one flashback to another, via voiceover and the plot device of Kenna reading letters to her dead boyfriend, the film starts to feel its 2 hour length, and with moments that seem to exist purely to end a chapter in a book, rather than service a story on screen.

In amongst it all though is Monroe, who delivers a committed and engaging performance in this perfunctory tale of redemption, motherhood and second chances. There's a spiky vulnerability to Kenna that Monroe embodies and doesn't overplay - consequently, she's engaging throughout, elevating the formulaic and predictable moments the drama has to hit.

Withers, whie seemingly riffing on the quarterback career of Cade in Him (a role he played), is fine, solid enough as a pawn caught in the middle of what's going on, but lacks some of the pull, guilt and emotional turmoil that Ledger needs, given his part in what happened and is happening.

Ultimately, Reminder of Him is perfunctory in many ways, though its episodic structure begins to grate, and the final third of the melodrama doesn't feel like it has enough suspense or tension - an outcome is never in doubt, but thanks to an affable enough lead duo, it's a journey that's bearable enough, but in no way memorable.