Colleen Hoover is having a moment, and while the author may feel like the ongoing It Ends with Us legal issues have overshadowed the film, she’s still got plenty of opportunity to make an impact with her book-to-screen adaptations. Reminders of Him is the next one up — set to hit the 2026 movie calendar on March 13, starring Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers — and critics are weighing in on the romantic drama.
The story, which is one of two Colleen Hoover adaptations hitting the big screen this year, follows Kenna Rowan (Monroe), who returns to her hometown hoping to meet the daughter she had while serving prison time for the drunk driving accident that killed her boyfriend Scotty. Kenna bonds with Scotty’s best friend, Ledger Ward (Withers), as everyone else remains hostile to her. In CinemaBlend’s review of Reminders of Him, Sarah El-Mahmoud calls it “the best Colleen Hoover movie” so far. She rates it 3.5 stars out of 5, writing:
In a world where love stories can often be dramatized as being toxic or impossible, there’s a wholesome and serendipity about the story of these two that feels grounded – while also having a smidge of the kind of fantasy-like, passionate love affair one would hope from a big-screen romance. But, perhaps the biggest surprise of the movie is how it’s more of an endearing family drama before being a romance at all.
Both lead actors have made a name for themselves in the horror genre, so the casting gives this adaptation an unexpected twist, and according to Mark Kenedy of the AP, they nail the assignment. Maika Monroe is both flirty and maternal in a “tricky” role, while Tyriq Withers plays Ledger with “real soul,” Monroe says. The critic gives the movie 3 stars out of 4, writing:
Article continues belowThe movie veers dangerously close to overwrought melodrama — like a line about Kenna ‘heading back to the place it all went wrong hoping to make something right’ — and it flirts with twee: Not many grocery store baggers spend their off-time dancing at dusk with sparklers. But that’s what happens when you add romance to a redemption story and the actors pull it off, with perhaps the best performance by little Zoe Kosovic, who plays Diem with freshness, adorableness and directness.
Kate Erbland of IndieWire gives it a B-, saying “finally,” we have a Colleen Hoover adaptation with actual heart. The tortured romance is still there, of course, but this cast has also tapped into genuine emotion. Erbland continues:
Vanessa Caswill’s Reminders of Him is easily the best Hoover film adaptation yet, bolstered by strong performances and an emotional center that does not primarily rely on some kind of tortured romance (though, that’s there, too!). If these are the other dimensions on offer in Hoover’s books, perhaps there is life in those pages.
Damon Wise of Deadline, however, finds Reminders of Him almost, if not equally, as nonsensical as last year’s Regretting You, calling it “ridiculously lovey-dovey hokum” in which logic flies out the window. Wise says of the “dreary tearjerker”:
Reminders of Him isn’t so much an ensemble movie as a hostage crisis; one wonders if Scotty’s parents [Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford] have so little dialogue because they’re too embarrassed to say what’s been written for them and are desperately making the SOS hand signal to their agents behind their backs.
Derek Smith of Slant agrees with the above assessment, writing that the movie “doesn’t so much tug at the heartstrings as ceaselessly yank on them.” Kenna is not forced to grapple with her mistakes, and Scotty’s parents’ path to forgiving her is supremely underbaked, Smith suggests, as he rates Reminders of Him 1.5 stars out of 4 and writes:
Reminders of Him feels reverse engineered to maximize emotional impact. Not only is it scarcely concerned with its characters behaving like flesh-and-blood human beings, this latest adaptation of one of Hoover’s novels relies so heavily on absurd coincidences that it becomes difficult to discern what it’s even trying to say about grief and forgiveness.
Some critics think Reminders of Him is Colleen Hoover’s best adaptation yet, while others say it’s the same melodrama we’ve gotten from Regretting You and It Ends with Us. That split decision is reflected not just from the opinions above, but on a larger scale, with Rotten Tomatoes scoring it at 64% as of this writing.
Suffice it to say, if you’ve enjoyed seeing the novelist’s stories on the big screen so far, this one is likely another good option for you. Anyone who wants to check Reminders of Him out to form their own conclusions can do so starting Friday, March 13.
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