If your social media feed is anything like mine, then for the past few weeks you’ve been inundated with trailers for Colleen Hoover’s new film adaptation, “Regretting You.” Going into the movie, I had already been spoiled by the trailer giving away most of the plot, so I figured I was about to watch some chick-flick slop not even fit to call itself a rom-com. Leaving, however, I realized I didn’t completely hate the film. Don’t get me wrong: It was hardly a cinematic masterpiece, but at least I left feeling entertained. And while the movie definitely has an intriguing premise, it tries to accomplish too much at once, ultimately leaving the audience unsatisfied.
The film follows Clara Grant (McKenna Grace, “Gifted”), her mom, Morgan (Allison Williams, “M3GAN”), and their respective romantic relationships. The opening scene reveals that Morgan and her then-boyfriend, now-husband, Chris (Scott Eastwood, “Stolen Girl”), became pregnant with Clara in high school. We are also introduced to Morgan’s sister, Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald, “A House of Dynamite”), and her eventual fiancé, Jonah (Dave Franco, “Together”). Together they form a comforting and seemingly tight-knit family unit, but it all unravels once Jenny and Chris are killed in a car accident. Following Morgan, Clara and Jonah in their subsequent grieving, the film focuses on the new lives they must build in the wake of their old ones crumbling around them.
The movie attempts to explore Morgan’s grief after losing her husband and sister in many ways, including how their deaths revealed the pair’s years-long hidden affair. This is where my problems with the film begin. It is absolutely devastating to learn your husband was cheating on you with your sister, and it is an innovative angle from which to look at the conflict between grieving a loved one and being angry with them at the same time. However, “Regretting You” establishes very few emotional stakes when it comes to Chris and Morgan’s relationship. They have barely any screen time together before the accident, and the moments we are shown don’t portray their dynamic in the best light. In one of the flashback scenes, we even see Chris say that “drunk Morgan is my favorite Morgan” after she turns down a drink because she’s pregnant with Clara.
At this point, the film could have explored Morgan’s feelings about getting married too young, marrying for the sake of her child rather than love or how her relationship with Chris deteriorated over time. Any of these storylines would have added more depth to her grief by fleshing out her undoubtedly already complex relationship with her high school sweetheart. Instead, we are only given glimpses of Morgan’s internal struggle — a few short moments and off-handed comments about how she’s been reduced to merely a wife and mother — that don’t build upon each other. The closest she comes to stepping out of these roles is by choosing to redo their house, supposedly signifying a return to her passions. Unfortunately, the backstory for the decision is lazily set up, and the emotional significance behind it is not properly introduced.
This problem persists as the film tries to balance Morgan and Jonah’s long-time-coming love and Clara’s budding romance with a boy named Miller (Mason Thames, “How to Train Your Dragon”). Clara, now a teenager, experiences her own high school romance but it is complicated by grief. While the couples’ individual scenes showcase the progression of their relationships, the constant flipping between the two disrupts their buildup’s flow. For the older couple, the use of close-ups and flashbacks highlights the longing that has haunted their relationship since they were teenagers. Jonah’s glances, how he knows Morgan’s favorite candy and his attention to her interior design hobby create a thought-out, quiet love story that has you rooting for the two to end up together. Yet by the end of the movie, the time we do spend with them is not enough for the audience to truly connect with the characters on their own.
While Thames and Grace’s performances were no doubt entertaining, their classic rom-com obstacles are never fully resolved. Clara and Miller’s third act argument ends with their relationship status up in the air and with many legitimate issues that they still need to discuss, many of which revolve around Clara’s grief-fueled recklessness and manipulation. However, these problems get swept under the rug and magically resolved over text with both agreeing they need to talk during a conversation that is never shown on-screen. Instead, all you see is them running into each other’s arms, kissing and making up, resulting in an unsatisfying conclusion that strips their story arc of complexity.
The movie then ends with Miller asking Clara to prom through a montage of clips he’s taken over the years that prove his love for her. This ending feels odd and fails because, though it shows a classic teenage moment, prom hadn’t been presented as a significant event for either character. The scene that follows isn’t even of them at prom (which would have justified the promposal scene), but rather a quick shot of them returning to their original “meet-cute” spot. Though it gives them a nice full-circle moment, it was very sudden when paired with the previous scene. So while the promposal allows the movie to tie up loose ends, it ultimately creates an awkward and choppy ending.
For all the film’s shortcomings, the soundtrack was phenomenal. With such an emotionally intense movie, it’s important to have a soundtrack that supports the characters’ journeys and fits the vibe the film wants to convey. It absolutely blew me away: it was chock-full of needle drops perfectly matching the characters and their emotional states. I walked out of the movie feeling more adamant that the soundtrack was a must-listen than that the movie was a must-watch.
“Regretting You” could be a fun, easy watch with your friends, but the film bungles both Morgan and Jonah’s emotional depth as well as Miller and Clara’s cutesy first love. Instead, I would say just add the soundtrack to your playlist and call it a day.
Daily Arts Contributor Maeve McGinn can be reached at maevemcg@umich.edu.
