The Reel Review
A devastating tragedy exposes a terrible, years-long betrayal that threatens to ruin the lives of grieving widow Brooke, her teenage daughter and her brother-in-law, in this adaptation of the popular 2019 Colleen Hoover novel. Allison Williams, Mckenna Grace, Dave Franco and Mason Thames star in this romantic drama.
More than a decade after his tearjerker The Fault in Our Stars, director Josh Boone again generates the waterworks in this heartfelt tale of grief, betrayal, first love and missed opportunities. His four leads are the glue that keep what could have been a cloying, emotionally manipulative tearjerker into something quite special, giving each of the three complicated relationships room to evolve organically. Best friends turned real-life couple Grace (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Gifted) and Thames (The Black Phone, Black Phone 2) in particular have terrific onscreen chemistry.
Yes, some of the romantic elements are, as expected, a bit schmaltzy and predictable, and the constant theme of miscommunication does get old after a while. But the joyful tears from that super sweet crowd-pleaser of an ending are well earned.
REEL FACTS
• Regretting You is the second film adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel, after 2024’s It Ends With Us. Her novel “Confess” was turned into a 2017 TV series.
• Scott Eastwood (Wrath of Man) and Willa Fitzgerald (Strange Darling, Reacher), who portray Brooke’s adulterous husband and sister, played married spies in the 2025 crime thriller Alarum. Eastwood’s father is Oscar-winning actor/director Clint Eastwood.
• Although set in the fictional town of Dyson, North Carolina, Regretting You was filmed in Atlanta.
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