Review of Reminders of Him, directed by Vanessa Caswell

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I feel like a lot of my blog introductions, especially when it comes to movies, have been lamenting on the fact I don’t have a ton of time lately. I used to work as a film critic (which, in fact, was so incredibly underpaid that I now make more off of this blog’s display ads than I ever did publishing anywhere else), and then when I was in graduate school I was writing a lot about film, so I used to watch so many movies.

But now I work an 8-5, come home, and then doom scroll my evenings away instead of watching the movies I used to love so dearly. And recently I realized I want to stop doing that, so I’ve set limits on my phone and am fully prepared to sit back and watch more movies and read more books in order to feed my brain.

One of the few joys I have in terms of weekend excursions is my AMC A List subscription. For my non-Americans out there, this is a national movie theater chain that offers 4 movies a week for a pretty decent monthly fee. My sister and I both have it and tend to see movies at least once a week.

I often go outside of my comfort zone in terms of what I watch because of the AMC A List, which is how I ended up seeing Reminders of Him with my sister. I never would have seen it if my sister didn’t want to, and probably would have never seen it. I have no interest in Colleen Hoover books or movies.

Let’s get into the review!

After getting out of jail, one woman tries to rebuild her life and find the daughter she left behind.

Our main character in this movie is Kenna, and at the start of the movie she’s getting out of prison on parole after six years. She was convicted for vehicular manslaughter six years ago after getting into an accident that killed her boyfriend at the time, and their daughter was given to his parents after Kenna gave birth in jail.

She moves back to her hometown, where her boyfriend’s parents still live with her daughter. With the little money she has, she moves into a low-income building and runs around looking for a job. No one will hire her because of her record, and at the end of the night wanders into an old bookstore turned into a bar.

The owner, Ledger, welcomes her and makes a coffee. He has no idea who she is, but he was Scotty’s best friend and helps take care of her daughter. Kenna had never met Ledger because he was in the NFL at the time, so this is actually the first time they’re meeting—but he has no idea who she is. When he asks her on a date, she realizes who he is and flees.

Kenna finds a job shortly after at a grocery store, then goes to her boyfriend’s parents’ home in order to see her daughter. Ledger sees her there (he lives across the street) while leaving and stops her from seeing Diem, her daughter, and realizes that she was Scotty’s girlfriend.

Another situation almost happens when Scotty’s mother and Diem go to the grocery store during her shift and Ledger stops them from meeting. Kenna is pretty angry at Ledger for his actions, but with some urging from his coworker, they go on dates and have an honest conversation and she tells him the true circumstances of that night.

Turns out it was Scotty’s birthday, they were high, and when she ran the car off the road she thought he was dead because the blood supply to his arm had been cut off. She wandered off thinking he was dead, but he was actually alive the entire time and died because of the lack of medical attention.

She pleaded guilty because of how terrible she felt about this, then had Diem while in jail. On Mother’s Day, Ledger dives Kenna a bouquet of flowers, but when Scotty’s dad catches her working at the bar and dating Ledger, he punches Ledger and tells him to never see Diem again.

Kenna decides to leave town and Ledger takes her journal to show Scotty’s parents the section she wrote documenting the night of Scotty’s death. After that, Scotty’s mother decides to visit Kenna and ask her to come visit. Ledger sees her arriving at the house and is told to come join.

Kenna then meets Diem for the first time and introduces herself as Ledger’s friend, but as they play, tells Diem she’s her mother. They all sit and eat dinner, with Diem sleeping in Kenna’s lap. After that, Kenna becomes a fixture in Diem’s life, and the film ends with Kenna, Ledger, and Diem putting Scotty’s memorial back on the side of the road.

Overall Thoughts

I’m not big on romance films, even though I’ll watch them if I’m interested enough. The most interesting character in this was Kenna, but she fell kind of flat and was pretty much a static character throughout the course of the movie. I simply didn’t care for any of these characters and felt that this movie demanded more care upfront that I didn’t have.

Anyways, I was really bored throughout this movie. It just fell flat on so many different levels, which is kind of what I expected from a Colleen Hoover movie, especially when I don’t think her books are that good. The characters and writing aren’t that great, which translates into this movie adaptation.

I say see this one if you’re interested, but maybe not if you’re not compelled by the synopsis or actors. It’s worth skipping if you’re not invested in this.

Follow me below on Instagram, Letterboxd, and Goodreads for more.