Cast: Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Lainey Wilson, with Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford
Genre: Drama, Romance
Director:Â Vanessa Caswill
In Irish Cinemas: 13th March 2026
The marketing around Reminders of Him wastes no time reminding audiences exactly where it comes from: the wildly popular novels of Colleen Hoover, whose name has rapidly become shorthand for a very particular brand of tear-streaked romance. Much like John Grisham built a cottage industry out of courtroom drama and Stephen King turned terror into a multimedia empire, Hoover has quietly cornered the market on glossy heartbreak. Her stories have migrated from bookshop shelves to cinema screens with remarkable ease, and by now, audiences arrive knowing the template: strikingly attractive people, picturesque small-town backdrops, emotional trauma dialled up to eleven, and the persistent promise that love might somehow stitch the broken pieces back together.
This latest adaptation follows that formula almost to the letter. Directed by Vanessa Caswill, the film is unapologetically engineered to wring every ounce of emotion from its viewers. It leans so heavily into its sentimental instincts that resistance eventually becomes futile, the cinematic equivalent of rolling your eyes at a power ballad only to catch yourself humming along a few minutes later. It’s fitting, then, that Coldplay’s ever-present anthem Yellow features prominently in one of the film’s pivotal scenes: earnest, sweeping, a little obvious and undeniably effective.
Subtlety has never been the currency of Hoover’s storytelling, and Reminders of Him proves no exception. When Kenna Rowan, played by Maika Monroe, is released from prison, she returns to the postcard-perfect Wyoming town of Laramie, hoping to rebuild the life she lost. Instead, she finds herself at the ironically named Paradise Apartments, a rather shabby complex that symbolises just how far she’s fallen. As if to underline the film’s emotional cues in fluorescent marker, her landlord soon insists she take in a tiny abandoned kitten, a plot device so brazenly adorable it might as well arrive with soft piano music and a donation hotline.
Kenna’s past hangs over every step she takes. Years earlier, she accepted responsibility for a drink-driving crash that killed her boyfriend Scotty, portrayed in flashbacks by Rudy Pankow. The accident left her pregnant and incarcerated, meaning the daughter she gave birth to behind bars has grown up without ever knowing her. Now five years old, the child Diem, played by Zoe Kosovic has been lovingly raised by Scotty’s grieving parents, Grace and Patrick. Those roles are filled with gravitas by Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford, whose characters remain steadfast in their belief that Kenna’s presence could only reopen wounds that never properly healed.
Inevitably, romance arrives in the form of a tall, kind-hearted bar owner named Ledger, played by Tyriq Withers. The two meet when Kenna wanders into his bar after yet another fruitless day searching for work, and their chemistry is immediate if predictable. What Kenna doesn’t realise, however, is that Ledger was once Scotty’s closest friend and has since become a familiar figure in young Diem’s life. It’s the sort of coincidence that might strain credibility in a more grounded drama, but in Hoover’s heightened emotional universe, such contrivances feel almost mandatory.
Ledger eventually gives Kenna a job working weekends at the bar, and their tentative friendship gradually deepens into something more intimate. The complication, of course, is secrecy. Terrified of the fallout if Scotty’s parents discover the relationship, Ledger attempts to keep their growing bond hidden. The result is a series of increasingly awkward close calls ducking into supermarket aisles to avoid recognition, hurried exits when Grace unexpectedly enters the bar, and rain-soaked dashes worthy of a melodrama from another era.
Taken at face value, much of it borders on the implausible. Yet Caswill and co-writers Lauren Levine and Hoover herself steer the film with enough sincerity that viewers are carried along regardless. If that means ignoring some rather clumsy storytelling devices, such as Kenna’s opening voiceover, which introduces the narrative before disappearing entirely, then so be it. The same goes for the stacks of journals she fills with letters addressed to the late Scotty, one of which conveniently becomes a crucial emotional turning point later in the film.
Fortunately, the cast brings enough warmth and conviction to keep the story afloat. Monroe, best known for her work in horror films, relishes the chance to play something less overtly genre-bound, grounding Kenna’s desperation in a performance that’s both restrained and sympathetic. Withers, meanwhile, lends Ledger an easy charisma, convincingly portraying a man torn between loyalty to the past and hope for something new.
The supporting cast also leaves a mark. Graham and Whitford imbue Scotty’s parents with genuine sorrow rather than one-note antagonism, and Graham in particular delivers some quietly affecting moments as the story moves toward its emotional crescendo. Country singer Lainey Wilson pops up as Kenna’s supportive colleague, while Kosovic’s Diem is almost aggressively adorable.
Perhaps the most unexpected presence comes from Monika Myers, who plays Kenna’s outspoken neighbour Lady Diana, a teenager with Down syndrome whose blunt observations provide the film’s attempts at comic relief. Those moments can feel awkwardly handled, occasionally veering into uncomfortable territory.
Still, for all its clumsy plotting and emotional overkill, Reminders of Him understands precisely what it’s trying to do. It aims straight for the heart and rarely misses. You might scoff at its manipulative streak or roll your eyes at the melodrama, but by the final act, chances are you’ll be discreetly reaching for a tissue all the same. In that sense, it’s classic Colleen Hoover: unabashedly sentimental, occasionally ridiculous, yet oddly difficult to resist.
Overall: 7/10
Movie Reviewer
