REMINDERS OF HIM -- A Movie You'll Want to Forget

Review by Chadd Clubine

It’s fitting that this film is being released on Friday the 13th—because it truly puts the horror in horrible. If you’ve been going to the movies over the past several months, chances are you’ve already endured its tedious, awful trailer. And unfortunately, the trailer gives away virtually every major plot point. Watching it feels like sitting through a condensed version of the entire film again and again. The one saving grace is scream queen Maika Monroe, who delivers a performance that’s both different and commendable. Sadly, her efforts are wasted on an unrealistic story riddled with plot holes.

If you’ve seen the trailer, then what happens in the film shouldn’t come as any surprise. Yet the movie unfolds as if the central event is some great mystery, devoting a large portion of its runtime to slowly revealing details the audience already knows. It begs the obvious question: why not simply tell the story in chronological order? That’s just the first of many questions the film ironically raises. From the way it’s shot and edited to its overall tone, the movie never seems sure of what it wants to be. That uncertainty carries over into how it presents its themes, leaving the film feeling unfocused and tonally confused.
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When the film centers on the core story—Maika Monroe’s character desperately trying to get back to her daughter—it actually works. Unfortunately, that focus probably amounts to only about ten minutes of the runtime. It also shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the film is, at heart, a love story. After all, it’s based on a novel by Colleen Hoover, whose work often leans heavily into romance. The problem isn’t the idea itself, but the way it’s presented. While the film attempts to portray complex characters, it repeatedly frames the women as more culpable than the men. For instance, there’s no realistic scenario in which the female lead would actually go to prison for what she did, yet the male lead faces virtually no consequences for his actions. He spends the film going behind everyone’s back, and at one point even takes someone’s personal journal—without any repercussions whatsoever. The imbalance makes the story’s moral logic feel frustratingly skewed.

The film ultimately feels like it exists mainly to ride the hype surrounding Colleen Hoover’s other popular stories. As a result, much of the cast feels both wasted and oddly miscast. Maika Monroe seems genuinely interested in stretching beyond the kinds of roles she usually plays, and she’s quite good—especially in the film’s conclusion. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the rest of the ensemble, who often feel like they’re simply along for the ride of the film’s built-in popularity. There’s little to no chemistry between Monroe and Tyriq Withers, which makes the central relationship difficult to invest in. Meanwhile, the parents’ motivations never feel fully developed, leaving their actions confusing and unconvincing. At one point, the film even builds toward a climactic family confrontation that’s clearly meant to be deeply serious—but instead lands as unintentionally hilarious.

The film often feels like it’s leaving out key material from its source. As a result, the structure becomes a mess, and many of the side characters are introduced as if they’ll matter—only to end up feeling completely meaningless. Take the cat, for instance. What happened to it and why would this place give a cat to someone who clearly has no money? Then there are the families at the apartment complex, or the coworker at the bar. The film frames all of these elements as though they’ll play an important role, but by the end, it simply forgets about them. On top of that, the tonal choices are baffling. For a film that aims for such a serious, emotionally complex tone, the country music scattered throughout feels completely out of place. Between the uneven writing and the confused tone, the film is filled with questionable creative decisions.

At this rate, if you’re not already on the Colleen Hoover hype train, this film might be your final stop. Some viewers will undoubtedly connect with the lead character’s struggles, but by centering so heavily on an implausible love story, the film ultimately loses much of its emotional weight and significance. The direction gives the impression that the movie is more interested in capitalizing on the popularity of its source material than in telling a compelling story from beginning to end. In the process, it squanders a talented cast on a film that’s far easier to forget than it is to remember.

Reminders of Him is in theaters March 13th!

RATING: 1.5/5