Regretting You Review
Based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Colleen Hoover, Regretting You is a romantic comedy with elements of drama. The story focuses on the romance and relationship between Clara Grant (McKenna Grace), a senior in high school who wants to become an actress, and Miller Adams (Mason Thames), one of the most popular kids in school and an aspiring filmmaker. At the beginning of the film, Clara’s life seems to be nearly perfect with a very close and loving family, made up of her father Chris Grant (Scott Eastwood), her mother Morgan Grant (Allison Williams), her aunt Jenny Davidson (Willa Fitzgerald), and her uncle Jonah Sullivan (Dave Franco).
But when a tragedy changes the lives of Clara and her family forever, she will find herself at odds with her mother, who is her total opposite. As they discover a life-changing betrayal, Morgan and Jonah also get closer and closer while trying to protect Clara from the devastating truth.
The film portrays a heartwarming and heartbreaking story of complicated family relationships, lost love, and second chances. While its more emotional and sad moments may seem overwhelming at times, the story manages to balance its tragedy with its humour quite well, with some genuinely funny comedy that will have audiences laughing out loud in cinemas. It struggles to pick up at the beginning, especially in terms of writing, but its beautiful emotional moments and impressive character development make it eventually work in the final act.
I wish that the film had focused more on the love story between the adults in the movie rather than the main couple. The former is far more interesting and layered than the straightforward and easily predictable – albeit sweet – teenager romance that the audience has seen time and time again on their screens. Admittedly, the main plotline functions as a good counterpoint to the adults’ story that might prove too sad or heavy for a romantic comedy, but the overall movie would have been a lot more compelling if Jonah and Morgan had been the main characters rather than supporting Clara and Miller. This would have allowed the movie to delve deeper into some of the important and heavy topics it touches on, namely those of grief, love, and loss.
Regretting You also struggles with exposition, especially in the first half. While the information is often delivered in conflict, the first act of the film seems to function exclusively – and not always successfully – to portray the necessary contextual information that the audience needs to understand the story and, perhaps more importantly, the complicated dynamics between the characters. The visuals are not entirely impressive either, and are similarly used to relay useful information rather than telling a story in their own way. For example, the film portrays text messages on screen in a very unimaginative way that only ends up falling into predictable cliches, which seems to be something the film does quite often.
Overall, Regretting You might be cheesy and admittedly a little predictable at times, but it’s still a fun – and at times emotional – watch for fans of the genre who will tear up and laugh out loud during the film’s two-hour runtime.
★★★ 1/2
In UK cinemas from October 24th / McKenna Grace, Mason Thomas, Dave Franco, Allison Williams/ Dir: Josh Boone /Paramount Pictures/ 12A
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