I Just Watched 'Reminders of Him' and It Wasn't Nearly as Terrible as I Was Expecting

Set in Laramie, Wyoming, the movie opens with a rather shocking introduction to the protagonist, Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe), when she kicks over a memorial cross on the side of a country road and plucks it out of the ground. Through letters she writes in her journal, Kenna reveals that she's just been released from prison after being charged for vehicular manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, Scotty Landry.

After securing a bleak, dingy, motel-style apartment and part-time work as a grocery bagger, Kenna pursues the real reason she returned to her hometown. In flashbacks, Kenna relives the birth of her daughter during her incarceration, and the reverberating scar of having the baby whisked away. The 5-year-old, Diem (Dottie in the book), now lives with her paternal grandparents, Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford). Scotty's (handsome) best friend, former next-door neighbor and retired NFL player Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers), has stepped in as a father figure. All three have conspired to keep Kenna away from Diem—though Ledger is soon caught between his loyalty to the Landrys and the growing realization that Kenna isn't the person they all assumed she'd be.

The script, written by Hoover and Lauren Levine, was bogged down a bit by some cheesy lines, weird and very obvious product placements and mildly clunky stage directions for everyone to breathe as loudly as possible, among other things. But, the film did surprise me in several ways.

First, it was PG-13. I have nothing against the sex scene but feel things have gotten gratuitous over the years. I miss the 2000s rom-coms where the majority of the movie was spent getting to know the other person. The fact that nothing serious happens between Kenna and Ledger until deep into the second act, while still effectively communicating the storyline and emotional stakes, was refreshing.

There was also the casting diversity that didn't feel forced. For starters, we have a Black male lead in a romantic drama, which doesn't occur nearly as often as it should. Withers, who was featured in The Hollywood Reporter's NextGen Class of 2025, plays a character who is at once confident and protective, forceful but gentle, often sure he's right but willing to admit that he's wrong. There's also Monika Myers, the actress and disability advocate with Down Syndrome who plays Kenna's sassy neighbor/co-worker, Lady Diana. Lady Diana's quirks provide comic relief but, importantly, not at her expense, and the script doesn't center her disability as her identity.

Within all this, the movie asks several questions. In the face of tragedy, who has the right to grieve? Can people change? Are we defined solely by our past mistakes? What does it look like to forgive and reconcile when the sin is irrevocable? The line that hit me hardest was during a confrontation between Ledger and Patrick, when the former tells the latter, "You've taken the worst moment of her life and made it who she is."

Reminders of Him managed to deliver solid entertainment with some introspection—the audience with whom I watched the movie laughed aloud in parts. Overall, much better than I could have hoped for, and now, shockingly, I might just read the book.