If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been happening in the world of literary adaptations, you already know that Colleen Hoover’s novels have become something of a Hollywood obsession. We covered Regretting You here on Trevor Decker News, the Paramount adaptation starring Allison Williams and Mckenna Grace that landed in theaters last October, following a mother and daughter as they explored what’s left behind after a devastating accident reveals a shocking betrayal and forces them to confront family secrets and redefine love. It had its moments, a strong cast, and that undeniable Hoover emotional DNA. Now Universal Pictures is bringing another one of her most beloved stories to life, and this one feels like a different kind of swing entirely. Reminders of Him hits theaters on March 13, and from everything we’ve seen and read about it, this film has the potential to be the adaptation that truly gets Hoover’s work right.
The story centers on Kenna Rowan, a young woman who, after a perfect outing with her boyfriend, makes an unbearable mistake that sends her to prison. Seven years later, she returns to her hometown in Wyoming, hoping to rebuild her life and earn the chance to reconnect with the young daughter, Diem, she has never known. The pain of that premise alone is enough to hook you, but what makes it resonate even deeper is that Kenna isn’t a villain seeking sympathy. No one in this story really is. It’s just people navigating loss, and the film’s direction appears to lean into that with intimate visuals and small-town texture.
The novel sold 6.5 million copies globally, which tells you that Hoover tapped into something universally true about guilt, grief, and the longing for second chances. What’s particularly exciting about this adaptation is that Hoover didn’t hand the keys over to someone else and walk away. She co-wrote the script with Lauren Levine and was a producer on set every single day, something she hadn’t done on any of her previous adaptations. That kind of creative investment shows, and it gives fans every reason to trust this version of the story.
Leading the film is Maika Monroe as Kenna, a casting choice that makes a whole lot of sense when you think about it. Monroe has built a career on performances that require you to feel everything she’s feeling, and she brings that same emotional weight to a character fighting to rebuild her life and find a second chance after heartbreak. Opposite her is Tyriq Withers as Ledger Ward, a former NFL player and local bar owner who becomes Kenna’s unexpected source of compassion and then something truer and deeper, despite the fact that Scotty, the man Kenna lost, was Ledger’s best friend. That tension at the center of their relationship is what makes this story so layered, and Withers has spoken thoughtfully about how he approached it. He described tracking Ledger’s journey from disdain to acceptance to love, carrying the quiet emotional nuance of a man who has let tragedy redefine what life really means.
The supporting cast reads like someone assembled it specifically to make you cry harder than you thought possible. Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford play Diem’s grandparents Grace and Patrick, while Rudy Pankow takes on the role of Scotty, whose presence haunts the story through flashbacks. Grammy-winning country star Lainey Wilson appears as Kenna’s friend and coworker Amy, marking Wilson’s feature film debut. Yes, you read that right. Lainey Wilson is making her big-screen debut in this film, and if her Yellowstone work is any indication, she’s going to hold her own just fine.
Directing the film is Vanessa Caswill, who leads what Universal is calling an all-female filmmaking team. There’s something fitting about that given how deeply this story centers the interior lives of its women, the weight Kenna carries, the grief Grace refuses to let go of, the little girl caught in the middle of it all.
Reminders of Him is, at its core, a film about the cost of forgiveness and the courage it takes to ask for it. It asks hard questions about what we owe each other when someone we love is gone, and whether love itself can survive being built on complicated ground. Those aren’t easy questions, and the best stories don’t pretend they are. If the CoHo universe has been building to something, this just might be it.
Reminders of Him opens in theaters March 13. Check out the trailer below.
