About the film (courtesy of Paramount Pictures):
Based on the bestselling book, the adaptation introduces audiences to Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) and her daughter Clara (Mckenna Grace) as they explore what’s left behind after a devastating accident reveals a shocking betrayal and forces them to confront family secrets, redefine love, and rediscover each other.
An elegant and fun coming-of-age story that shows off what dating for teenagers in the age of social media looks like while also tackling complex romantic relationships among adults. Regretting You is Author Colleen Hoover’s second book-to-film adaptation. The film consistently struggles to find a clear identity, whether it be romantic comedy, tragedy, or drama. It doesn’t spend long enough during its hour-fifty-six-minute runtime to lean one way or the other. It doesn’t do any of them badly either; it just leaves an audience wanting in some ways.
Introduced by The Killers’ “When You Were Young” as an opening (a very fitting choice), Regretting You opens in a flashback with four characters in seemingly mismatched relationships: the nerdy Jonah Sullivan (James Franco) is dating the wild and reckless party girl Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald), while Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) is dating the stereotypical jock Chris Grant (Scott Eastwood). The flashback ends with Morgan confessing to Jonah that she’s pregnant with Chris’ child, which seems to indicate that they would be unable to ever make things work.
Regretting You then jumps seventeen years into the future, on Morgan’s birthday, and settles into its story for the remainder of the film. The center of this story is Clara (McKenna Grace), Chris and Morgan’s now teenaged daughter. This includes a bit of a Romeo-and-Juliet-style plot where Clara is warned against pursuing a romantic relationship with Miller Adams (Mason Thames), whose father is currently in prison and is infamous for being a drug dealer.
After a major betrayal in the family, the story oscillates between multiple subplots and again seemingly bites off more than it can properly chew. This includes a lot of the typical ‘will they/won’t they’ tropes that are common in movies, as well as the navigation of the social situations attached to the main betrayal and its consequences for the now adults, while also exploring aspects of teen dating and the pressures they face. Regretting You also serves as a good glimpse to show parents what dating looks like for high school teenagers now with the advent and rise of social media.
Overall, at its surface, Regretting You is a good watch—a rollercoaster of emotions that its target demographic is sure to love. It features spicy scenes that push its PG-13 rating at times and may be too much for younger audiences, but for those who know what they’re in for, it will be a good time. It’s a film that most people will not regret seeing.
Regretting You opens in theaters everywhere Friday, October 24th.
