Film Review: Regretting You

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Film genres are much like fashion, with some things going in and out of style, some never truly taking off, and others never truly going out of style. Thanks to their genre of work, the likes of Anna Todd and Colleen Hoover have had new eyes drawn to their novels by their adaptations for the screen, making it no big surprise to see Todd’s name appear as a producer for Regretting You, a new romantic drama adapted from Hoover’s 2019 book of the same name. Following on from the success of last year’s It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover may prove to be the new go-to for new-adult romantic fare, if Regretting You can find its own audience.

The story begins with a flashback to the mid-2000s, where a beer-stop and a beach party establish the dynamics that will continue until the modern day. Morgan and her younger sister Jenny are coupled up with best friends Scott and Jonah, though anyone can see things are the wrong way around. As Scott pulls Jenny deeper into the party, Jonah seems on the verge of confessing his feelings to Morgan when she announces, “I’m pregnant.” Seventeen years later, she and Scott are long-married, and Jenny has since been left by and reunited with Jonah, after a surprise reunion resulted in her own unplanned pregnancy. Yes, the actors do play themselves as teenagers. No, they do notlook the part, but yes, Allison Williams and Dave Franco play teenage should-have-been-lovers convincingly.

Tragedy soon strikes, leaving Morgan and Jonah reeling and straining the bond between Morgan and her daughter Clara. The two people Clara thought most of died in tandem, and her mother doesn’t want to risk those memories by revealing why they were together at the time of the accident. Mckenna Grace smoothly navigates the guilt that comes from grieving while also falling in love, and her natural charm helps soften some of Clara’s more brattish edges. She also has a breezy, instantly familiar chemistry with Mason Thames’ Miller, whose own charm is immediately apparent despite his role taking longer to pay off.

  There are some touches of vagueness to the script, where we’re told things more than shown them. Miller and Clara have the same top choice for university, but neither his love for filmmaking nor her dreams of being an actress are given much real weight. Once or twice, we see her in costume for a school production, and his walls are littered with posters from Sunset Boulevard to Ferris Bueller, but it’s more common to hear someone mention her talent or talk about his prospective short film than to see any real sign of it. Likewise, Morgan resolves to finally find her passion, and comments are made about her long-dormant habit of sketching room plans, but it’s never fully clarified if she’s unlocking a buried desire for interior design or simply making her husband’s childhood house finally her home.

These details can be frustrating, but easy to look past, thanks to the quality elsewhere in Susan McMartin’s script, which gives the leading ladies in particular a real sense of depth and humanity. McMartin and director Josh Boone deftly toe the line between laughter and tears, ensuring that these women don’t lose their inherent humour in their grief, and that it is apparent that life will, in fact, go on. With the film clocking in at just shy of two hours, there is also a decent command of pace, with the third act only somewhat drawn out and the major revelations nicely placed to ensure their proper pay-off. For example, just enough time is given to develop the set-up of the flashback opening, and establish the modern-day dynamics, before the unthinkable tragedy rocks the remaining characters, leading firmly into an emotionally driven second act.

There is strong chemistry between Thames and Grace, as is there between Allison Williams and Dave Franco, but many of the most resonant moments are between the two leading ladies. Grace, a rising star whose impact in The Handmaid’s Tale was so deeply felt that I’m surprised to learn she appeared in just six episodes, continues to prove herself as one of Gen Z’s most reliable and capable young actors, holding her own beautifully against Williams as Morgan. Williams, having recently returned to the out-of-her-depth guardian role in Megan 2.0, brings a sense of experience and well-honed gravitas to Morgan. Her performance is subtle and devastating, and the back-and-forths between her and Mckenna are always captivating no matter whose side you may fall on.

  Dave Franco, as mother’s long-term friend and daughter’s high school teacher, continues to show his growth as an actor, bringing an understated awkwardness to Jonah that befits his long-standing, but never truly expressed, feelings for Morgan. As was the case earlier this year opposite his real-life wife in Together, he does end up somewhat dwarfed by the abilities of his scene partner, but he demonstrates a real knack for an awkward, unprepared romantic hero character which should serve him well at this stage of his career. His experience with comedy is also a valuable asset, particularly for a dinner-party scene in which high tensions breed some cutting, merciless strokes of dark humour. Grace excels in this arena, Williams is an astute straight-woman, but Franco is the wary, offput glue that holds the scene together.

Director Boone and cinematographer Tim Orr keep the film decidedly, and attractively, rural throughout. When we first meet Miller and Clara, she stops to offer him a ride home and is enlisted into an ongoing scheme to move the “city limits” sign to put his grandfather’s home within a pizza place’s delivery scope. A mid-range shot following them down the road allows us to see just how apparently the home falls beyond these limits, and lets us know that Miller is definitely somewhat of an outsider, “coolest guy in school” claims aside. Other shots can be less distinctive, with a reliance on close-up and mid-range shots that keep an actor firmly in focus but leave you wondering if they shared the room with their scene partner, but a romantic drama relying on chemistry and emotional reactions hardly seems the place for experimental visuals, and the choices here certainly don't impact the performances.

Kristen B. Adams, designer for the film’s sets, does a nice job of creating first a perfectly pleasant but indistinct home, and progressively a living space that does start to resemble the character we’ve come to know Morgan as. Set decoration from Nicholas Urbano also allows for a malleable, ever-changing backdrop to the drama going on in the forefront of the frame, and of our minds. Boone has drawn effective, genuinely human-feeling performances from his leading cast, and their humour and tragedy both feel part of a collective world, one where the comedic best-friend characters feel authentic to the situation rather than thrown in for laughs. Admittedly, there’s always a jarring quality to seeing the only two non-white major characters end up together, but the personalities as written both clash and mesh so beautifully that it does still make for a charming relationship.

Compellingly acted and walking confidently along the fine line between young adult angst and full-grown identity crises, Regretting You has plenty of laughs, more than a few tears, and is totally winning in its final moments when the connection between mother and daughter becomes fully apparent as the heart of the piece. It’s old fashioned in a way, but what makes it more traditional in its delivery is what makes it universal, and why this kind of story has never truly fallen out of fashion. With two bright stars at its heart, and their respective romances bolstering their stories, Regretting You is a film few will regret seeing.

Regretting You opens in UK cinemas on Friday, October 24^th

Listings can be found at your local cinema or at https://www.regrettingyoumovie.co.uk/