Enduring Colleen Hoover content Reminders of Him just to feel something

Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers star as Kenna and Ledger in Reminders of Him. // Courtesy Universal Pictures

Hoover’s book-to-screen adaptation of her romance novel Reminders of Him is hitting screens Mar 13. It’s directed by Vanessa Caswill and stars Maika Monroe as the troubled Kenna Rowan. 

Kenna finds herself released from prison, having served seven years for allegedly killing her boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow) in a weed gummy-related car accident. She’s on the search for Diem (Zoe Kosovic), to whom she gave birth in prison, named “Carpe Diem” (which goes unexplained in the film), and never saw again. Except nobody wants the murderer of Diem’s father anywhere near the little girl.

Thank god Kenna finds redemption and a way through with romantic interest Ledger (Tyriq Withers)—Scotty’s best friend, Diem’s pseudo-uncle, and owner of the local bar. 

To its credit, Reminders is rife with moments that call for you to feel something. There’s the kitty Kenna reluctantly adopts from her landlord to save on rent. Then Lady Diane (Monika Myers) serves as questionably infantilized comedic relief. Then the hot tension of Kenna and Ledger’s enemies-to-lovers dynamic. If you’re a big TikTok watcher, too, you’ll find edit-worthy clips from warmly-lit flashbacks and sentimentally telegraphed needledrops like Lord Huron’s “The Night We Met.” 

It makes sense: Hoover is a writer who likes to put emotions first. My screening’s collective laughter and tear-soaked sweaters prove that she and Caswill accomplished what they set out to do—an undeniable success on this front.

I wish I could say Monroe’s performance was “emotions first,” too. While known for her subtle execution of a traumatized FBI agent in horror flick Longlegs (2024), she opts to take Kenna somewhere even subtler, keeping the most stony delivery in her and Ledger’s most heated arguments. Sometimes, though, it looks like she’s stifling a laugh. Meanwhile, it’s Withers—who brings pinprick angry tears and a quiet earnestness to Ledger’s confessions—that steals the show.

As for the laypeople to the Hoover Cinematic Universe? You’ll likely find, in Reminders of Him, regular reminders of the movie’s near two-hour runtime. Or reminders that the plot grazes but never fully gets at Hoover’s compelling topic choice in the carceral system, its treatment of mothers, and what it is to find your way back, as a woman, to a dignified way of living. 

Except, this movie is much like Kenna’s weed gummy—you’re not necessarily there to think, but to feel.