Colleen Hoover has been a staple in the fiction book community, but has since made her way into the film industry. With It Ends with Us and Regretting You being major box office successes, it looks like Hoover’s work will continue to be adapted to feature films, leading to the release of Reminders of Him. While the film maintains the rom-dram elements that makes Hoover such a popular author, it falls under the trapping of her previous film adaptations.

Reminders of Him follows Kenna Rowan, played by Maika Monroe, as a woman struggling to transition back into society after accidentally killing her boyfriend, Scotty (Rudy Pankow), while driving intoxicated. With her boyfriend’s parents (Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford) restricting Kenna from seeing her daughter after losing guardianship, she forms a relationship with Scotty’s best friend, Ledger (Tyriq Withers). Working numerous dead-end jobs, Kenna is forced to confront her past in order to build a better life for herself and regain custody of her daughter.

Being co-written by Colleen Hoover (along with Lauren Levine), who’s known for her slew of romance books, Reminders of Him appears to be the stereotypical rom-com on paper, but the film delves deep into drama. While there was potential for the drama to leave a big impact, Hoover tries too hard to stick to her source material, leading to numerous overdramatized moments. Despite already serving her sentence, Kenna is beaten down for a majority of the film. From struggling to find a job to being disowned by her boyfriend’s parents, Kenna is lost in a whirlwind of sadness. Not even the adorable kitten that she adopted with her new apartment can help cheer her up. Coming off of Regretting You, this is a major tonal departure that some may find unexpected. 

Although it makes sense to tackle a subject as serious as death and regret with a darker tone, Reminders of Him overdoes the seriousness to a point where there’s nothing to enjoy or latch on to. There are plenty of reasons to empathize with Kenna, but her character’s blunt attitude toward everyone she interacts with, even prior to her accident, makes it difficult to root for her character. For a movie so focused on the protagonist’s psyche, the fact that her character is so unlikable makes for an overall frustrating experience. 

The film is not just an overtly dramatic slog. Characters like Lady Diana, played excellently by Monika Myers, serve as solid efforts of levity, but their inclusions come at the strangest moments. A sequence where something tragic occurs would randomly cut to a 10-second scene where a character makes a joke, and this juxtaposition feels more random than purposeful.

The beam of light in Kenna’s life was meant to be Ledger, but the film’s lackluster presentation of the character makes it difficult to understand what made him such a beacon of hope for her. Played by Tyriq Withers, he portrays Ledger with no strong charisma. The weak writing behind Ledger makes it difficult to bring any nuance for the role, but he didn’t even attempt to make the character stand out in any way. Although the character is dealing with his own issues, the film never delves into why Ledger falls in love with Kenna, with the closest point of reason being that she is “misunderstood.” The same goes for Kenna, with their relationship appearing mostly as coincidental rather than something real. Love is a strange thing, as most know, but falling for someone because they are misunderstood or by coincidence is never true love.

Kenna’s life goes through many major changes throughout the film, but Maika Monroe’s performance feels as if the character never changes at all. Monroe has shown in the past that she is excellent at playing reserved, depressed characters, but that’s all she brings to the role of Kenna. Even in the moments that are meant to be her happiest, she still seems like she does not want to be there. Although it’s justified for Kenna to be unhappy for most of the film, Monroe goes too far with the performance, contributing to her character’s unlikability.

Films about women’s resilience can often lead to powerful storytelling, but Reminders of Him stands as the rare outlier of this, with its overly dramatic screenplay and horrid romance making for an experience that is dreadful to get through. With very few actors committing to their roles and strange moments of humor, this film fails in nearly all aspects. Hopefully this film is as low as Colleen Hoover adaptations go, but with another project already looming on the release calendar for later this year, only time will tell.

Reminders of Him will be released in theaters nationwide on March 13.

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