Reminders Of Him (12A)

Kenna Rowan emerges from an uncontested seven-year prison sentence for vehicular manslaughter under the influence to return to the home town where she was held legally responsible for the death of her boyfriend Scotty Landry. She is grimly resolved to confront ghosts of the past so she can finally meet the daughter she was forced to give up in prison. Unfortunately, cherubic tyke Diem is being raised by Scotty's parents Patrick and Grace, both of whom blame Kenna for the loss of their son.

LondonNet Film Review

Reminders Of Him (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

The latest adaptation of an emotionally manipulative Colleen Hoover novel, following in quick succession after It Ends With Us and Regretting You, sparks heavy-handed romance between a female ex-con and a handsome bar owner in the aftermath of the tragedy that she caused. Directed by Vanessa Caswill, Reminders Of Him shamelessly targets tear ducts with two different renditions of Coldplay’s bittersweet lament Yellow and, possibly, the cutest child actor you’ll see all year…

Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) emerges from an uncontested seven-year prison sentence for vehicular manslaughter under the influence to return to the home town where she was held legally responsible for the death of her boyfriend Scotty Landry (Rudy Pankow). She is grimly resolved to confront ghosts of the past so she can finally meet the daughter she was forced to give up in prison. Unfortunately, cherubic tyke Diem (Zoe Kosovic) is being raised by Scotty’s parents Patrick (Bradley Whitford) and Grace (Lauren Graham), both of whom angrily blame Kenna for the loss of their son.

Before Kenna can identify herself, she meets Scotty’s former best friend, Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers), a local bar owner who sacrificed his dream playing American football with the Denver Broncos to a career-ending shoulder injury. There is palpable attraction between the couple but fascination turns to conflict and confusion when Ledger realises his new crush is the source of so much pain. “I want to meet the human that Scotty and I made,” Kenna implores Ledger, who is a doting uncle to Diem and might be the only person capable of bridging the divide between opposing factions.

Adapted for the screen by Lauren Levine and author Hoover, Reminders Of Him is a glossy drama that declares its simplistic intentions from the outset and fulfils them with matter-of-fact confidence. We know exactly where Kenna’s odyssey of self-healing is headed from the first lines of her wistful voiceover and Caswill’s picture doesn’t deviate one inch from that signposted path. A well-thumbed therapeutic journal, which Kenna fills with heartfelt letters to Scotty to help her come to terms with her loss, is telegraphed in neon-lit capital letters as an important plot point that filmmakers can exploit for sniffles at a critical juncture.

Monroe’s layered lead performance burnishes occasionally trite dialogue and she catalyses simmering chemistry with Withers, playing his second embattled American footballer in a row after yesteryear’s horror thriller Him. The speediness of Kenna and Ledger’s mutual infatuation assumes a deeper connection than we get to see on screen. Whitford and Graham are reduced to narrative cogs, steadfastly blocking Kenna’s path to a dewy-eyed reunion with her daughter until their resistance to saccharine sentimentality proves almost as futile as ours.

– Sarah Lee