(From left) Kenna (Maika Monroe) and Ledger (Tyriq Withers) in Reminders of Him, directed by Vanessa Caswill. © Universal Studios
After the car accident, Kenna knew that there was a before and a during the accident, but she never dared to imagine what the ‘after’ would look like, how she would move on.
In “Reminders of Him”, the newest Colleen Hoover movie adaptation, Kenna, played by Maika Monroe, returns to Laramie, Wyoming, after serving five years in prison for the death of her boyfriend Scotty, played by Rudy Pankow, and she has one goal: finding her daughter.
Kenna’s daughter Diem, now five years old and played by Zoe Kosovic, has been raised by Scotty’s parents, Grace and Patrick, played by Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford, and Scotty’s childhood best friend, Ledger, played by Tyriq Withers, who still lives across the street from their house. Even though every corner of Laramie reminds Kenna of Scotty, she returns to get her life together in hopes that she can convince Grace and Patrick to let her have a relationship with Diem.
Despite being Scotty’s best friend, Ledger doesn’t recognize Kenna when she stumbles into his bar one night looking for a job. Even though five years have passed, Grace and Patrick are still doing everything they can to keep Diem safe from the woman who killed their son. As Kenna and Ledger’s relationship grows, Ledger finds himself stuck between working to keep Kenna away from Diem while falling in love with her and learning that she might not be the villain that she is made out to be; that the crash and the events that followed might have just been a mistake.
There are multiple attempts to meet Diem and almost run-ins between Kenna, Grace and Diem, but Ledger prevents that connection, trying to maintain his make-shift family. Grace and Kenna’s maternal instincts clash as they both want to build and maintain relationships with Diem. Grace and Kenna’s relationship began healing when Ledger shared a letter with Grace that Kenna wrote to Scotty after the accident, revealing what truly happened that night. Through their conflict, viewers experience the weight of grief and understand how it freezes people in time, literally and figuratively.
This film showcases a cast of flawed characters, with plenty of skeletons in their closets. Though the only true villain in “Reminders of Him” is the consequences of one’s actions, if I had to name a villain, I would say that they tried to make Grace and Patrick the ones to blame for Kenna’s suffering. But after growing up on “Gilmore Girls”, I couldn’t see Lauren Graham as even a little evil. In putting this beloved actress in this role, I feel like I was able to rationalize both Kenna’s and Grace’s opposing sides of the story.
(from left) Grace Landry (Lauren Graham) and Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) in REMINDERS OF HIM, directed by Vanessa Caswill. (© Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved)
Monroe’s performance, in addition to the tragic storyline, brought me, and many other audience members, to tears. Every time she closed the door of her cheap, worn-down apartment, the discouraged pain of being so close and yet so far from her daughter, while feeling the guilt and anguish of returning to a place where everything reminds her of Scotty, was palpable.
One weaker aspect of the film, however, was the music. It would have gone unnoticed, had an underlying theme of connecting music and emotion slowly developed. Of course, the token song from the film is Coldplay’s “Yellow,” as it was playing during the car crash. Yellow also happens to be Diem’s favorite color, a symbol throughout the film. The film resolves with an upbeat rendition of the song being played in the background. While the sentiment and message of this song are easily communicated, it is tired and overdone.
The use of – Lord Huron’s “The Night We Met” also threw me off. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great song, and its overall sound and lyrics relate to the movie’s message, but it was the song’s placement that felt wrong. The song is also used throughout the official trailer for the movie; because of that, I was immediately pulled out of the narrative, and was honestly quite confused.
Soon after, Noah Kahan’s newest song, “The Great Divide,” was featured as it played in the background of Ledger’s bar. I think the inclusion of Kahan’s sound makes sense for a story taking place in Wyoming, but the fact that it was his newest song and not a song from “Stick Season” added to the feeling of product placement.
However, there is one song that was perfectly placed: Phoebe Bridgers’ “Funeral”. In a scene where Kenna and Ledger are talking in his truck, Ledger reaches to turn the radio on, but Kenna stops him. She says that she doesn’t like listening to music because it is all sad, but lets Ledger try to find something to listen to anyway. The first song, which only plays for a few seconds, is none other than “Funeral”, arguably one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard, further proving Kenna’s point. While I do think I might have been one of the only people in the theater who understood the reference, I greatly appreciated the timing and placement of this song.
“Reminders of Him” presents a heartbreaking story of grief and misunderstanding, and asks viewers to question how much a person can change. Does one wrong choice define a person’s life? Or is there the possibility to forgive and build new trust between two healing people?
“Reminders of Him” hits theaters March 13.
Contact CU Independent Assistant Arts Editor Addisson Pribble at Addisson.Pribble@colorado.edu
