THE STORY – A young mother, Morgan Grant, and her teenage daughter’s relationship is strained in the aftermath of Morgan’s husband Chris’s tragic death, forcing them to navigate life’s challenges together.
THE CAST – Allison Williams, Mckenna Grace, Dave Franco, Mason Thames, Willa Fitzgerald, Scott Eastwood & Clancy Brown
THE TEAM – Josh Boone (Director) & Susan McMartin (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 116 Minutes
Despite the reception and the legal fallout that have clouded “It Ends With Us” since its release, Hollywood has undoubtedly decided it’s in the Colleen Hoover business. Hoover’s writing, which has sold millions of copies worldwide, has permeated the film space as studios rapidly greenlight adaptations of her work, attracting a wide array of A-list talent. While “Regretting You” may not boast the same star power as the upcoming “Verity” adaptation, what it does have is filmmaker Josh Boone. Boone, who captured the hearts of many adolescent moviegoers in the 2010s with “The Fault in Our Stars,” is well-versed in the YA genre, albeit in outings that have steadily dwindled in quality. His attempt to explore the situational drama embedded in Hoover’s novel is ultimately stifled by a comically bad screenplay that serves far more effectively as an advertisement for your local AMC than as a well-rounded romantic drama.
The messiness of “Regretting You” lies in the relationships of four friends, spanning from their high school years—filled with teen pregnancy and partying—deep into adulthood. Morgan, played by Allison Williams, is the total opposite of her partner, Chris, played by Scott Eastwood. Morgan is easygoing, yet she’s not the social butterfly her partner is. This is why Chris was always able to get along with her sister Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald), and why Morgan bonded with Jenny’s boyfriend Jonah (Dave Franco). Flash forward to the present, and everyone seems happy with where their lives are. Chris and Morgan, now married, are raising their daughter Clara (McKenna Grace), while new parents Jenny and Jonah are discussing the next steps in their relationship. All seems right with the world until tragedy strikes. Chris and Jenny not only died in a car accident, but it’s also revealed that they were having an affair for years. Morgan and Jonah are left in emotional devastation, forced to grapple not only with this revelation but also their long-buried feelings toward each other, which begin to resurface.
It’s a forbidden love story that attempts to forge grief into desire, one that could easily wrap audiences around its finger emotionally, yet Williams and Franco are unable to convince anyone that their characters are truly star-crossed lovers trapped in an unfathomable situation. Every word that comes out of their mouths feels so labored that natural chemistry never develops between the two performers, leading to a series of awkward moments that only underline the inevitable. The same could be said about Grace’s storyline opposite Mason Thames as Miller Adams, a troubled kid at Clara’s high school who, while aspiring to attend film school, begins to fall head over heels for her. This relationship, which runs parallel to Morgan and Jonah’s, at least feels more organic, even if their meet-cute is watered down by an almost creepy reveal in the film’s final moments. These burgeoning relationships, often causing friction between Morgan and Clara, play out as conventionally as one would expect. It’s not that Hoover’s writing is a gold mine for cinematic inspiration, but Susan McMartin’s screenplay does no favors to her source material.
Boone’s direction still feels stuck in the 2010s, from the use of certain needle drops, including The Killers as soon as the film begins, to the nauseating overuse of voice-over during every text exchange, which only adds another layer of awkwardness. Boone’s attempts at comedic levity mostly fall flat, further dulling the impact “Regretting You” wishes it had. There are more moments of unintentional laughter than genuine amusement. Still, there are rare scenes where everything actually does click, and a few of the intended comedic beats land, most of them thanks to Clara’s free-spirited friend Lexie (Sam Morelos). Morelos makes the most of her screen time, avoiding the pitfalls that plague the rest of the ensemble.
It’s hard to invest emotionally when each character is so thinly sketched, and the film shows little interest in delving deeper into any of them. As mentioned earlier, Thames’ character desperately wants to make films, a passion reinforced by his poster of “The Two Jakes” and his nightstand copy of Sidney Lumet’s “Making Movies,” yet he’s deemed “problematic” by others for reasons the film never supports, aside from the fact that his father sold pot and went to jail. None of these characters feels like a real human; they seem more like figures in a parody trailer that could appear in Apple TV’s “The Studio.” If someone bet me a million dollars that one of Grace and Thames’ most supposedly romantic moments would take place in the halls of an AMC in front of posters for “The Running Man” and “The Godfather,” I’d be in serious debt. “Regretting You” is a baffling romantic drama that reinforces why this genre, despite its loyal audience, has struggled to evolve. It will likely resonate with moms topping off a glass of wine for movie night, but this Colleen Hoover adaptation is difficult to find anything worthwhile in, feeling unrewarding in almost every way.
