‘Regretting You’ Movie Review: Maudlin Sudser Benefits From Pretty, Charming Cast
Photo from Paramount Pictures
From Jeremy Kibler
Experiencing familial tragedy and a second chance at love, beautiful people are just like us…kind of. All of the smiles and attractive faces do go a long way in not completely deriding Regretting You, a glossy and earnest sudser that continues the big-screen treatments of Colleen Hoover’s popular books since last year’s It Ends with Us. Maudlin but still emotionally involving, this melodrama, adapted from Hoover’s 2019 novel and directed by Josh Boone (The Fault In Our Stars), benefits largely from an immensely likable ensemble. It’s all so mawkish, but everyone sure is pretty.
North Carolina housewife Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) and 16-year-old daughter Clara (Mckenna Grace) have their lives upended when husband and father Chris (Scott Eastwood), along with Morgan’s free-spirited sister and Clara’s aunt Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald), are killed in a car accident. Also suffering from this tragedy is Jenny’s nebbish fiancé Jonah (Dave Franco), a high school teacher who’s left as a single parent to care for their newborn son. But why were Chris and Clara in the same car? That secret devastates Morgan and Jonah during their grief process, but it might also bring them together. Meanwhile, Clara distracts herself with cool bad boy Miller Adams (Mason Thames), who’s constantly on and off with his current girlfriend. Grandstanding romantic gestures, rain-soaked kisses, and advertisements for both Jolly Rancher and AMC Theatres abound.
It’s hard not to be a little cynical with a Nicholas Sparks-adjacent tearjerker like Regretting You. Thankfully, the whopper of a “twist” gets revealed pretty early on that it’s not much of a twist at all, as the proceedings center on the fallout of that revelation. (It does make one wonder how Clara, established as such a bright young woman for her age, hasn’t already pieced together the relationship between her saintly aunt and father, but whatever.) There is a sweet teen romance here between Clara and Miller, coupled with an honestly portrayed mother-daughter relationship, but it’s all inside of a contrived soap opera seemingly plotted by Oprah where they get a romance and then they get a romance (save for the wonderfully grumpy Clancy Brown as Miller’s ailing grandpa). Susan McMartin’s screenplay does sporadically wield some sharp dialogue when it isn’t the unnaturally expository kind or insipid text-message bubbles emblazoned on the screen and accompanied by voice-over. Though all of this is intended to be profoundly emotional and meaningful, the heart-tugging can feel superficial at best.
One does have to credit the mostly astute performances and a nice chemistry between all of them, given that the material isn’t always above melodramatic clichés. Having honed a perfectionist type on TV’s Girls and in film roles, Allison Williams is appealingly direct as newly widowed Morgan. For more emotive scenes or to get a laugh, she can do a lot with her eyes and a withering look. Blossoming out of being a child actor, Mckenna Grace can’t help but be a warm and lovely ray of light as aspiring stage actress Clara; she is the main highlight here.
Mason Thames (Black Phone 2) also gets a chance to be charming and chivalrous as Clara’s love interest Miller (a movie buff and aspiring filmmaker whose movie taste, based on his bedroom walls, is awesomely eclectic). Dave Franco seems a bit miscast as a sensitive romantic lead, at least this time around, but tries bringing a pensiveness and sweet sensibility to Jonah, the one that got away. As a sort-of Greek chorus, Sam Morelos (an irresistible lead in Hulu’s Summer of 69) brings the most levity to the awkward family drama with her quick-witted comic timing and fearless presence as Clara’s best friend Lexie.
From the film’s start, the adult actors’ de-aged faces in the 2007-set opening, plus another key flashback, is too distractingly gauzy to be convincing (17 years later, they don’t look that much older). Foreshadowing is a bit heavy-handed as well, considering a 17-year-old Jonah literally asks, “How did we end up with our exact opposites?” as he stares longingly into Morgan’s eyes. Unfortunately, the hunky Chris and the wild Jenny are dead, so they don’t really get to defend themselves or bring any perspective; plot revelations and photos from the past must do all of the work. When Scott Eastwood and Willa Fitzgerald are on screen, they don’t get nearly enough time to register the impact that’s intended once they’re gone, although Fitzgerald makes the most impression between the two.
Regretting You wants to simultaneously be cozy and poignant in a you’ll-laugh, you’ll-cry sort of way, but it never fully finds that sweet spot. See director Boone’s own underseen debut Stuck in Love for a much more affecting multi-generational slice of life with a sizable ensemble. Though tragedy strikes, this is still a predominantly pleasant movie where moments of cheese and corn feel like part of the recipe. A very specific demographic is going to fall in love with this adaptation as they did the source material; to keep the rest of us invested, the engaging, photogenic cast does its best until their faces hurt. Despite several false moments, there are just enough grace notes and bright spots to not feel entirely regretful.
Rating: 2.5/5
Regretting You hits theaters on October 24, 2025.
