52 Films by Women Vol 10. 10. REMINDERS OF HIM (Director: Vanessa Caswill)
I just watched the
movie, Reminders of Him, based on the novel by Colleen Hoover, and
it features letters written to you by the protagonist, Kenna (Maika Monroe) in two
or more exercise books, which you won’t get a chance to read because you died
in an automobile accident. I figured I do the same. Not die in a car accident,
the writing. The letters help Kenna explain herself to other people far better
than looking them in the eye and inviting tricky questions. Those who publish
their thoughts online know this all too well. Kenna literally carries her
history with her. She might leave it at a bar by accident, but only because she
wants to, subconsciously, especially if she knows her exercise book might be
picked up by a handsome guy, Ledger (Tyriq Withers) who goes looking for her.
The bar is actually called the Bookstore, so what the hey, it needs some books.
It used to serve good coffee. Ledger does his best, brewing a fresh pot and
topping it off with some cream, but it isn’t the same. Kenna has served six
years of a seven-year prison sentence after she was convicted for her part in your
death. It takes a while before those watching the movie understand the nature
of Kenna’s crime – driving under the influence of Coldplay – and then we think
to ourselves, could her lawyer be any worse?
I’ve got to tell
you, Scotty, there’s something weird about this guy, Ledger. He was your best
friend, but he told your parents, Patrick and Grace (Bradley Whitford, Lauren
Graham) that you first kissed a girl in a treehouse on their lawn that they now
let their granddaughter use. Talk about breaking a confidence. As Kenna wrote,
you have a daughter, Diem (Zoe Kosovic) who is being raised by your Mom and
Pop. Diem hasn’t discovered your bong yet. She knows that you have gone to a
better place – Canada. She has been told that her Mom will only show up once
she’s got a bigger car. That’s not the weird part. Ledger, whose promising
football career ended after he ‘blew his shoulder’ (strange expression) has
taken your place as her de facto father. He lives opposite her parents
and sees your daughter regularly. The mad part of this movie is that Patrick
and Grace serve Diem’s actual mother with a restraining order. But I’m getting
ahead of myself. Ledger broke up with his girlfriend because she objected to
him spending too much time with his best friend’s young daughter. Perfectly
understandable. Ledger feels guilty because he wasn’t there for you when you
were dating Kenna. Like there’s a problem with that?
Pictured (left to right): Diem (Zoe Kosovic), Ledger (Tyriq Withers) and Grace (Lauren Graham) in a scene from the second-chance romance, 'Reminders of Him', an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel directed by Vanessa Caswill. Still courtesy of Universal Pictures
I don’t know about
Hoover’s attitude to plot – she co-wrote the screenplay with Lauren Levine – but
Ledger exists in the story as a door jamb, a means by which Kenna can be
reunited with the child taken away from her in prison. We learn the baby was
born six weeks premature and needed specialist care; Kenna was denied the two
days she was promised with her baby daughter. In prison, happily no longer
handcuffed to a hospital bed, she lactated like crazy. An older convict, Ivy (Natascha
Girgis) offered support. Kenna thanked Ivy by naming a kitten after her.
You won’t know it
but right after Kenna got out of the joint, she headed straight for her home
town of Laramie, Wyoming. I say, ‘home town’, but Kenna’s parents and extended
family are nowhere to be seen. She arrives an apartment complex called
Paradise, but it is anything but. There’s a guy in the building who plays an
electric guitar. One of the residents is called Lady Diana played by Monika
Myers, Canada’s first runway model with Down Syndrome, according to her website. ‘They won’t give me a kitten to look
after,’ she complains. Lady Diana is the film’s comic relief; Myers can add
that to her resumé. Her purpose in the
film is to remind Ledger that he is a jerk at regular intervals. Ledger is a
jerk full time. The reminders are spaced out.
Now, Scotty, I
haven’t been chronological with you. The film begins with some aerial shots of
some mountains; ‘purdy scenery’, as no one said ever. Kenna drives into town
and stops when she sees a memorial to you, a wooden stake marking the spot
where you died. Kenna pulls it out of the ground and tosses it in the trunk.
This is the first of the film’s reminders. ‘You always hated memorials,’ she
says aloud. How does she know? He might have changed his mind. Kenna just about
has enough cash for the first instalment of rent, but Paradise’s proprietor,
Ruth (Jennifer Robertson) not God, insists that she take a kitten. Kenna feeds
the feline some water. It’s a start.
Her efforts to find a
job are met with rejection. Either they aren’t hiring or they won’t take a
woman with a criminal record (‘company policy’). Kenna contemplates returning
to the Dollar Store where she first met you. You Scotty (Rudy Pankow) bought
two plates before asking Kenna out. Kenna declined. ‘Company says we can’t date
the customers.’ You get a refund and ask again. ‘Pick me up around seven,’
Kenna smiles.
Where’s Ledger when
your life is changing for the better? He’s lifting weights. We don’t see him on
the football field because that would add to the budget. As it is, the film was
shot in Alberta, Canada, which is like America but with gun controls.
A kind woman helps
Kenna get a bagging job at the local supermarket G and G, where coincidentally
Lady Diana also works. The job isn’t full time, which gives Kenna the
opportunity to visit Grace and Patrick to check in on her daughter. Ledger
intervenes before Diem is able to ask questions. Diem asks other questions like
how old Grace will be when she [Diem] is an adult.
It isn’t long before
Ledger realises that Kenna is his deceased buddy’s ex-girlfriend, which
accounts for her serious attitude; Maika Monroe does not smile much in this
picture. I would have thought that you, Scotty, would have sent him a
photograph. Ledger tries to help Kenna by offering her a job at the Bookshop
working round back during the weekends. She brings order to Ledger’s chaos.
Your colleague, Roman (Nicholas Duvernay) likes her.
Ledger notices that
Kenna sleeps on the couch and supplies her with an airbed. This is entirely out
of self-interest. It isn’t long before Ledger breaks the ‘don’t date your
employee’ rule. After Kenna is served a restraining order by Grace and Patrick
while at work in the supermarket, she and your best buddy start kissing. He
spots the memorial to Scotty tucked away under the furniture. Though he is
displeased, it isn’t a dealbreaker.
Pictured: Ledger (Tyriq Withers, right) forgets his blown shoulder when he meets and falls for ex-convict Kenna (Maika Monroe, left) in a scene from the film version of Colleen Hoover's novel, 'Reminders of Him', directed by Vanessa Caswill. Still courtesy of Universal Pictures
‘What happened that
night?’ asks Ledger. ‘Read it,’ replies Kenna, indicating her notebook. Cue the
flashback. The day out. The intimacy. The drive back. The crash. Kenna’s crime
was that she left you behind while you were still alive. No motorist stopped
her. But if she had pulled you out, stood you up and staggered for help, would that
have made a difference?
Ledger shares
details of Diem’s life with Kenna. Her favourite flavour of over-priced ice
treat (a slushy served in a cup). A video of her. Kenna eventually gets a
mobile phone and gives Ledger her telephone number, in case of emergency; a
‘booty call’ in modern parlance. Kenna is expert at washing up (six years’
experience) and nachos but then Grace and Patrick, out for the evening spy her
in the back and Ledger is shut out of Diem’s life.
How can Ledger make
things right? As it turns out, words speak more powerfully than actions.
There is a strange
scene when Kenna goes out in the rain carrying a crate. Why does she need it?
There is also a mothers’ pot luck meal at Paradise. Ledger joins in too.
I have my doubts
about Hoover’s plotting and some of the film, directed by Vanessa Caswill
(Netflix’s Love At First Sight) is just hooey. Damned if it didn’t bring a
tear to my eye. The drama is all about second chances, which would ordinarily
be considered virtuous, though the current US President’s second go-round has
made the world a worser place. A voice over the end credits exhorts us to ‘make
mistakes, make mistakes’ as if somehow doing the wrong thing eventually makes doing
the right thing twice as sweet. Scotty, I don’t think the world works like
that.
Reviewed at Screen
Three, Cineworld Dover, Kent, Southern England, Saturday 14 March 2026, 17:00
screening
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