REMINDERS OF HIM: 2 ½ STARS. “will remind you of other, better movies.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Reminders of Her,” a new romantic drama based on author Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, Maika Monroe stars as a woman who must confronts her past to move forward.
CAST: Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Lainey Wilson, Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford. Directed by Vanessa Caswill.
REVIEW: “Reminders of Him” is a Nicholas Sparks style movie for those who find Nicholas Sparks too edgy. Although written by Colleen Hoover and Lauren Levine, it’s a roiling assembly of Sparksisms including forbidden romance, a nearly constructed dream house, kisses in the rain, a journal, a cute kid, a dead soulmate and the chance to start again.
“Reminders of Him’s” story stems from tragedy. “There was before you. There was during you. I never thought there’d be an after you,” Kenna (Maika Monroe) says after her boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow) is killed a terrible drunk driving accident.
Jailed for seven years for her role in his death, she returns to their hometown in hope of reconnecting with their child Diem (Zoe Kosovic), a little girl being raised by Scotty’s parents, Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick Landry (Bradley Whitford). “I’m headed back to the place it all went wrong,” she says, “to see if I can get something right.”
She is not welcomed with open arms—“If it wasn’t for her, our son would still be alive,” says Paterick— until former NFL player and local bar owner Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers) offers her a job. “Do you know how to wash dishes,” he asks. “Seven years’ experience,” she replies.
When his compassion turns to romance, their relationship deepens the rift between Kenna and the Landrys, who disapprove of her dating Ledger, Scotty’s former best friend and surrogate father to Diem.
As Ledger is forced to choose between his new love and his loyalty to Diem, Scotty and the Landrys, Kenna faces the hardest decision of her life.
Big issues are raised in “Reminders of Him, not to be explored, but simply to be overcome.
A collection of clichés from the Big Book of Romantic Melodrama, the movie uses Kenna, a traumatized character misunderstood by the Landrys, and her sad eyes, as a vehicle for the story’s overwrought contrivances.
Monroe perseveres, convincingly playing Kenna as a woman picking up the pieces after her life was shattered by death and prison. It’s hard not to root for her and it is that quality that prevents the film from suffocating under an avalanche of sentimentality.
“Reminders of Him” is a sincere-if-slight movie whose romantic tentacles are meant to tug at audience heartstrings, controlling them like marionettes, but instead puppets predictable romantic prosaicisms about redemption and second chances that will remind you of other, better movies.
Comments are closed.
