The Stream: No better than a typical Lifetime/Hallmark movie.

The Big Screen: Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers have good chemistry.

The Final Bill: Charming lead actors can’t make this bland story more than its ho-hum moments.

– Trip Fontaine
Director: Vanessa Caswill
Writers: Lauren Levine and Colleen Hoover; based on a novel by Colleen Hoover
Stars: Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Bradley Whitford, Lauren Graham, Nicholas Duvernay,
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, strong language, drug content, some violent content, and brief partial nudity
Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes
Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Little Engine, Heartbones Entertainment
Platform: In theaters March 13, 2026
Notable Trailers: Disclosure Day, You, Me, and Tuscany, The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Drama

What’s up, Streamers! Colleen Hoover is a prolific novelist in the romance drama genre, and now, the big screen has been graced with multiple adaptations of her work. Reminders of Him, released in theaters this weekend, is just the latest, but it’s the first with a screenplay co-written by Ms. Hoover. In Reminders of Him, Kenna (Maika Monroe) returns to her hometown after a few years in prison in order to rebuild her life and reconnect with the daughter she’s never met. In the process, Kenna develops a friendship, and maybe something more, with Ledger (Tyriq Withers) who unbeknownst to her has a connection to her past and her daughter. Longing looks and walking in the rain hijinks ensue.

Well, you know exactly what you’re going to get from this movie. The storyline is so familiar you could talk it out beat for beat without seeing a single scene. That’s what makes this movie potentially very boring and only worthy of background noise. However, the main cast does add a little interest into this movie. Maika Monroe is doing her best Blake Lively impression, and it’s pretty good. She’s sympathetic, but kind of dumb. Moreover, she has good chemistry with her love interest, Tyriq Withers. It’s quite understandable why these two people would be attracted to each other. Unfortunately, the story around them is illogical, trite, and boring. There are so many times when you’ll want to scream at the screen: “Why would you do that?”; “Does that make any sense?”; “Ridiculous!?!”; and “Ugh, really? So stupid!” It’s very frustrating and no amount of good-looking people swooning over each other can save this movie.

On a side note: the setting that is a stand-in for Laramie, Wyoming is breathtakingly beautiful. It is photographed well, and you get a good sense of Small Town, USA in its the look. The way these people act doesn’t make any sense considering how small this town is supposed to be, but whatever!

Ultimately, Reminders of Him is a full of cliches, poor storytelling, and obvious story beats. Despite the good work by Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers and beautiful scenery, the rest of this movie is boring and obvious. You don’t need to see this movie to know exactly what happens. It is best watched when you’re folding laundry and just need some noise on in the background. One popped kernel is all I can recommend.