Film Review: Regretting you

*This review may contain spoilers.

Released on the 23rd of October, Colleen Hoover’s newest film adaptation, Regretting You, is a trite failure. The film is adapted from Hoover’s book of the same name and directed by Josh Boone who is well known for his emotional film, The Fault in Our Stars. 

Regretting You’s marketing emphasised young actress McKenna Grace’s character Clara and her relationship with Mason Thames’, Miller. However, the film focuses more on Clara’s mother Morgan, played by Allison Williams. Morgan has an evident affinity for Dave Franco’s character Jonah (who is also her sister Jenny’s boyfriend) but falls pregnant to Jonah’s friend Chris.  

This twisted friendship circle fast forwards to17 years later when Morgan and Chris are married with 17-year-old daughter Clara while Jenny and Jonah have recently had a child of their own (after a 16-year break in their relationship).  

This immediately introduces plot holes: they got together at Jonah’s dad’s funeral, but why was Jenny there? What had happened in the last 17 years between Jenny and Jonah (or Jenny and Chris) or, even though Jonah admitted he disappeared once Morgan fell pregnant out of jealousy, Jonah and Morgan? 

The very next day it is predictably revealed that Chris and Jenny were having an affair, though them both dying in a car crash was indisputably an unexpected plot twist.  

The story then follows Clara, a straight A student, falling for Miller, the popular jock-type, and Morgan and Jonah finally exploring their relationship. Clara struggles with her relationship with Morgan while Miller admits a long-term affection for the protagonist.  

This type of storyline certainly has the potential to be ridiculously engaging and even complex. However, the film’s execution made it feel predictable, cliché and, ultimately, manipulative. 

Let’s dissect. 

Firstly, the actors. This is the first film I have watched in a long while that felt like I was watching a film. The dialogue was so clearly scripted; the emotion hardly palpable. It felt as though the actors forgot their faces can be seen, with Grace in particular scowling even in the happiest of moments. As mentioned, the marketing focused primarily on Clara and Miller’s relationship and it certainly appeared promising. However, their scenes lacked chemistry or general enjoyment- particularly from Grace. Williams and Franco demonstrated a greater liking for each other but even Franco’s plethora of experience came across as bored and ultimately substanceless.  

 I think the film would have benefited from a greater display of emotion. For example, there was no obvious grief in the days and weeks following Chris and Jenny’s deaths, which would be understandable if Clara wasn’t genuinely best friends with her aunty/had a great relationship with Chris. Clara had felt she was to blame for the car accident (which was a surface level response and honestly irrelevant) though one would expect this to amplify her grief. As well, Morgan had just lost her husband of 17 years and sister. Though they were having an affair, there was one outburst of anger (that resulted in an unnecessarily and awkwardly long car-smashing scene) and hardly any apparent sorrow. 

The writing was another problem. As discussed, the scenes felt scripted, but this was not only the fault of the actors. The film was riddled with overused clichés, like:  

Miller: “That is not how I thought our first kiss would be like.”  

Clara (scowling as per): “How did you think it would be?”  

Miller: “Like this…”. 

Looking around the cinema when scenes like this were playing, there was not a single face that wasn’t screwed up. At one point, there were rows of people laughing about how hard it was to watch.  

The writing also failed to add depth and personality to the characters. I really struggled to connect to Clara in particular, as her foul attitude could not be excused by grief because she had those attributes prior to the accident. Her dislike toward Morgan was unnecessary and the throwaway “no regrets” discussion at the end was an arc unfinished for me.  

A particularly distasteful element of the writing was the undeniable abuse Clara showed toward Miller. Clara’s choice to use Miller sexually (to provoke Morgan) was disgustingly understated. Not only was it simply wrong, it clearly deeply affected Miller and instead of apologising, Clara cried and begged him to help her sleep! This is blatant emotional manipulation that was too casually explored and further compounded by Clara’s birthday dinner where she continually joked about their night together despite the obvious discomfort of the guests. After calling Miller’s original girlfriend toxic earlier in the movie then acting this way, I’m honestly surprised there isn’t more discussion about her manipulation in reviews.  

Again, Clara wasn’t the only poorly written character. Miller’s relationship with his grandfather and parents was noticeably underexplored and his dedication to Clara seemed supremely unrealistic. He was making videos about how much he wanted to be with Clara while with Shelby but resumed his relationship with Shelby after his first time properly spent with Clara… How does this make sense? As the “coolest guy in school” and a man that firmly refuses to compromise his morals, this was firmly out of character and just emphasised the lack of a detail-oriented approach to writing the script.  

The focus on Clara and Miller’s relationship also damaged the depth that Morgan and Jonah were able to reach. Their relationship was one that had remained unspoken but traversed 2 different families and more than 17 years. When they discovered that they had remained faithful to their respective partners (despite loving each other) while their partners had acted on their infidelity, Jonah did not declare his love or grieve, instead he sent off his child to live with Morgan and disappeared for days. This was a missed opportunity to emphasise the mature relationship and show true character development, without the distraction of teenage drama.  

Admittedly, there were some funny moments, like Morgan parking next to Clara and Miller or pretty much any scene with Clara’s friend Lexie, though I think it was more the actress than the writing that made it work (her character is arguably another cliché- the eccentric friend who is desperate for love and happens to end up with another oddity while watching her best friend destroy all her meaningful relationships).  

A key feature of well-made movies is their ability to make most things present in any scene noteworthy: everything should be deliberate. This film highlighted things that became immediately irrelevant, like Morgan making her own cake every year or that Miller constantly had a lollipop. And, of course, the blatant product placement of brands like Paramount where, as reviewer Richard Lawson pointed out, Miller's room was adorned in exclusively Paramount releases…  

This film had great potential and it is truly a shame that instead of reinventing rom-coms, Boone decided to regurgitate age-old storylines while making them more awkward and substanceless.