{"id":4789,"date":"2026-04-17T15:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/reminders-of-him-is-convoluted-convenient-and-somehow-fun\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:49:16","slug":"reminders-of-him-is-convoluted-convenient-and-somehow-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/reminders-of-him-is-convoluted-convenient-and-somehow-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Reminders of Him\u2019 is convoluted, convenient and somehow fun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Before \u201cReminders of Him,\u201d I had already watched \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d and \u201cRegretting You,\u201d completing what I now think of as the \u201choly trinity\u201d of Colleen Hoover adaptations. Unsurprisingly, all three follow a pretty similar formula: perplexing relationships, extreme plot convenience and trailers that practically give away the entire story. Still, \u201cReminders of Him\u201d might be the clearest example of a perfect hate-watch, where every twist and dramatic moment makes the film oddly entertaining.<\/p>\n<p>The central romance between Kenna (Maika Monroe) and Ledger (Tyriq Withers) is unnecessarily complicated by how much emotional weight is piled onto their relationship from the start. Their love story actually begins with Kenna and her since-deceased boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow). After celebrating Scotty\u2019s birthday, Kenna and Scotty take an ill-fated drive while drunk, when Kenna crashes her car, killing Scotty and facing time for manslaughter. Before going to prison, Kenna discovers she\u2019s pregnant, and after giving birth to her daughter Diem (Zoe Kosovic) in jail, the child is placed with Scotty\u2019s parents, Patrick (Bradley Whitford) and Grace (Lauren Graham). This introduces the film\u2019s driving conflict: Scotty\u2019s parents don\u2019t want Kenna to have a relationship with Diem. In the years that follow, Scotty\u2019s best friend, NFL player Ledger, becomes a constant presence in Diem\u2019s life, essentially as her \u201cuncle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What makes this romance so convoluted is that by the time Kenna and Ledger meet, their lives are already deeply entangled. Kenna is responsible for his best friend\u2019s death, and at the same time, she is the biological mother of a child he has helped raise and formed a bond with. Their relationship is built on grief, guilt and betrayal. In fact, Ledger initially sides with Scotty\u2019s parents and is actively against Kenna having a relationship with Diem. These dynamics create an underlying conflict where any romantic relationship between Kenna and Ledger feels like it comes at the expense of someone: Scotty\u2019s parents, Diem or even Scotty\u2019s memory. The film expects the audience to accept major emotional transformations from everyone without fully exploring the weight of everything that came before.<\/p>\n<p>Because the relationships are very complicated, the film heavily relies on obvious coincidences to make the story work. Ledger\u2019s inability to immediately recognize Kenna is explained by his time away while playing for the NFL, but it\u2019s hard to believe that Scotty never sent a single photo of his girlfriend to his best friend. Another moment involves Kenna working at the grocery store, briefly admiring a little girl holding an adorable soft toy. At first, the scene feels completely random, leaving the audience wondering why it\u2019s even included. Later, she buys that same toy for Diem when they finally meet. The connection is tidy, but so blatant that it pulls you out of the story with its inauthenticity. As a filmmaker, the goal is usually to immerse the viewer so they forget it\u2019s fictional. Here, the convenience of these situations constantly reminds you that you\u2019re watching a constructed story.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Despite all this (or maybe because of it), watching \u201cReminders of Him\u201d in the cinema was a blast. The sheer melodrama, combined with how overly-engineered the story feels, creates \u201cso bad, it\u2019s good\u201d entertainment value. The highlight of the film is definitely Kenna\u2019s teenage neighbor, Lady Diana (Monika Myers). She has impeccable comedic timing, bluntly asking Kenna things like, \u201cWhy are you so poor?\u201d and \u201cWhy are you so sad?\u201d on their first meeting. Her banter with Ledger is equally hilarious, calling him \u201cLejerk\u201d and rejecting his handshake after learning that he prevented Kenna from seeing Diem. She consistently had the audience in splits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReminders of Him\u201d struggles because it tries to balance two clashing tones: an emotionally heavy backstory with moments of light, comedic relief. That said, it is undoubtedly more humorous than the other Colleen Hoover adaptations. On paper and cinematically, it doesn\u2019t really work, but that\u2019s exactly what makes it so fun. Watching \u201cReminders of Him\u201d is less about appreciating the craft and more about laughing at the spectacle and sharing those moments with others.<\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Arts Contributor Tarini Bengani can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/arts\/film\/reminders-of-him-convoluted-convenient-and-somehow-fun\/mailto:tarinib@umich.edu\"><em>tarinib@umich.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before \u201cReminders of Him,\u201d I had already watched \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d and \u201cRegretting You,\u201d completing what I now think of as the \u201choly trinity\u201d of Colleen Hoover adaptations. Unsurprisingly, all three follow a pretty similar formula: perplexing relationships, extreme plot convenience and trailers that practically give away the entire story. Still, \u201cReminders of Him\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[4456,3937,3236,4455],"class_list":{"0":"post-4789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-convenient","9":"tag-convoluted","10":"tag-fun","11":"tag-reminders"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4791,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions\/4791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}