‘Regretting You’ succeeds as unrealistic, feel-good rom-com
“Regretting You” is as unrealistic as it is fun, our columnist writes. Romantic and family plot twists kept audiences on their toes, even if some were a little too imaginative. Sophia Berger | Contributing Illustrator
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Since she was six, Mckenna Grace has played the little girl in what seemed to be every movie. From Caroline in “The Vampire Diaries” to Carol Danvers in “Captain Marvel,” the now-19-year-old actress feels like Hollywood’s go-to younger version of characters.
But she’s certainly not a little kid anymore.
Grace stars in author Colleen Hoover’s newest movie adaptation, “Regretting You,” released Oct. 24. The film follows Clara Grant (Grace) and her mother, Morgan (Allison Williams), after a car accident kills Clara’s father, Chris, and aunt Jenny. In the accident’s wake, Morgan and Jonah Sullivan (Dave Franco), Jenny’s boyfriend, discover their partners had been having an affair, the reason they were in the car together in the first place.
As Clara copes with the death of two of the most important people in her life, she sparks a relationship with Miller Adams (Mason Thames), the mysterious “hottest boy in school” (in Clara’s words).
“Regretting You” is exactly what I expected it to be. Is it going to change the way you think about the world? Definitely not. But will it tug at your heartstrings in the way only a BookTok story can? Definitely.
Still, even for a rom-com, some things felt a little too convenient. After a few slow-motion weeping scenes and black dresses at a funeral, the characters’ grief felt underplayed and glossed over. Instead of examining the complexities of loss, death is used only as a plot device to push the romance forward. While a rom-com usually ends in all smiles, here it felt out of place and unrealistic.
Hoover’s first book-to-film adaptation, “It Ends With Us,” was deep in scandal before and after its 2024 release — a lawsuit between the two stars, Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, is still ongoing. Conversely, Thames and Grace get along just as well as their characters; the actors are dating in real life. In many interviews, the couple admitted to improvising many of their kissing scenes, so much so that many didn’t even end up in the film’s final cut.
Their chemistry is palpable on screen. We meet Miller on the side of the highway, where he hitchhikes a ride from Clara. He’d been slowly moving the town limit sign farther and farther out so the local pizza place would deliver to his sick grandfather’s house. From this scene on, Miller is just as sweet. He promposes with a series of home videos, buys Clara a heartfelt gift for her birthday and supports her through her grief.
Even with a nearly two-hour runtime, “Regretting You” kept me hooked. When you think this movie is going to zig, it zags. Of course, the romance plots are predictable, but the family dynamics and plot twists made me and the entire theater audibly gasp. It felt a bit absurd at some points, but overall was just the right amount of shock value.
Apparently, I’m in the minority in this opinion. “Regretting You” stalled in the box office, contributing to the worst Halloweekend numbers in over three decades. The numbers aren’t surprising considering the film’s measly 29% on Rotten Tomatoes.
But maybe this film just wasn’t made for critics. It’s not going to win any Oscars or cement one-liners into the movie hall of fame, but it’s still worth the watch for a quick, romantic escape from the real world. Eighty-nine percent of audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes liked it, after all.
While detailing the high school romance, the characters felt authentic. Clara, Miller and their friends talk like high schoolers talk and act like high schoolers do. But big on-screen text bubbles broke up this flow for me. They were awkward and cringey, taking away from the sometimes serious conversations happening over the phone.
The morals in this movie are a bit murky. When Clara and Miller’s emotional relationship begins, Miller has a girlfriend. He breaks up with her, gets back with her and breaks up with her again as he develops feelings for Clara.
At the end of the movie, he admits to being in love with her from the moment she picked him up off the side of the road — his girlfriend calls him on their way home. I was (somewhat begrudgingly) rooting for the couple since their first scene together, but it felt like an unnecessary complication for Clara to overlap with his otherwise irrelevant girlfriend.
Morgan’s love life is even more morally gray. After Jonah and Morgan find out about their partners’ affair, the two develop their own relationship. It’s revealed that Jonah left Jenny years ago because he had such strong feelings for Morgan. Jonah and Jenny had recently gotten back together after a one night stand led to the birth of their son, Elijah. Even with a flashback to their younger days, I felt like I was being told Morgan and Jonah were in love, not being shown it.
Of course, Chris and Jenny’s affair changed Jonah and Morgan’s view of their former partners. And Jonah and Morgan apparently had feelings for each other for almost 17 years. But still, getting together so quickly after the accident felt like its own betrayal from characters who were acting morally superior.
Morgan never even really reacts to the fact that her sister died; it just doesn’t feel realistic. No matter what she’s done, kissing your dead sister’s boyfriend while taking care of her child has to be a severe violation of girl code.
Jonah and Morgan’s relationship was still cute, with swoon-worthy moments that moved the plot along and contributed to the drama. But not even a storybook kiss in the rain could take away the icky feeling I had about their relationship.
The movie’s soundtrack shines. The Killer’s “When You Were Young,” Role Model’s “Writing’s On The Wall” and Noah Kahan’s “Everywhere, Everything (with Gracie Abrams)” are just some of the songs that soundtrack the two love stories. From the moment Clara started singing Role Model in her car, I knew I was the target demographic for this movie.
That being said, “Regretting You” isn’t for everyone. To enjoy it, you have to suspend a bit of disbelief in favor of a world where complicated conflicts resolve themselves quickly and love always prevails. But it’s a world I’m willing to live in — at least for an hour and 56 minutes.
