This American romantic drama is about the romantic attraction of a young man to an ex-convict who emerges from prison after seven years behind bars.
REMINDERS OF HIM. Starring Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, and Laniey Wilson. Directed by Vanessa Caswill. Rated M (Mature themes and coarse language). 114 min.
Review by Peter W Sheehan, Jesuit Media Australia
The movie is directed by Vanessa Caswill from a screen-play that is based on a 2022 novel by Colleen Hoover, who co-wrote the screenplay to the film with Lauren Levine. After a romantic evening with Scotty (Rudy Pankow) who was her boypried, Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) is involved in a serious car crash, for which she is judged responsible. She lost control of her car, and the crash kills Scotty. She is arrested and taken into custody.
Kenna is charged but refrains from excessively defending herself in court, hoping that she will be given a lenient sentence, which doesn’t occur. At the time of the crash, Kenna had no idea she was carrying Scotty’s child. Released from prison after 7 years, she hopes to rebuild her life by reuniting with her daughter, who she gave birth to at the start of her prison sentence.
After her release from prison, Scotty’s grandparents refuse to let Kenna see her daughter. They see Kenna as the murderer of their son. Desperately unhappy and encountering resistance from everyone, Kenna unexpectedly finds comfort and understanding with a local bar owner, Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers), who was also Scotty’s best friend. Ledger becomes romantically attracted to Kenna, and the film focuses on their blossoming romance.
This is emotional cinema that depicts romantic attraction simply, but the film convincingly captures Kenna’s acute desire to connect with her own child. The film stays on target to convey the experience of her loss acutely. Drama stays at the surface of human relationships, and it is not entirely clear that romance the second time around for Kenna will ultimately succeed. The pain of coming home is ultimately resolved for Kenna, but major problems loom. The film concludes before pressing issues are faced and resolved by the romantic couple: How well, for example, will Scotty’s best friend, Ledger, cope with the trauma of memories that Kenna can’t ever forget?
Reviewed by Peter Sheehan, an Associate of Jesuit Media