Regretting You proves that even great actors can’t revive a messy script uninterested in its own plot.
Directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) and adapted from Colleen Hoover’s bestselling romance novel of the same name, Regretting You’s unfocused storytelling critically hurts the on-screen version.
The film follows a mother-daughter duo strained by loss and tragic secrets, circling a central question: How do you grieve someone only to later find out they betrayed you?
That heavy central premise stood to anchor the plot. Instead, it’s washed away by too many storylines, boring dialogue and glossed-over character development.
Set in North Carolina, the film opens in 2006 on a group of teenagers — played by CGI de-aged actors — having a night out. Morgan (Allison Williams) is dating Chris (Scott Eastwood) while Jonah (Dave Franco), who clearly likes Morgan, is dating her sister Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald).
Morgan and Jonah are the quiet non-drinkers in contrast to their loud, extroverted partners. Instead of letting these dynamics emerge naturally, the film relies on lazy, explanatory dialogue with characters awkwardly spelling out the backstory.
The scene ends with Morgan revealing she is pregnant, and the film jumps forward 17 years to the present day, where Morgan and Chris’s daughter Clara (McKenna Grace) is a senior in high school. The family dynamic seems wholesome: Clara is close to her aunt, and Jenny and Jonah have a newborn.
This comes to a screeching halt when Jenny and Chris die in a car accident, and Morgan and Jonah learn about their partners’ years-long affair.
The main issue is not the story itself but in the film’s scattered and shallow storytelling.
Regretting You begins to explore Morgan and Jonah dealing with grief and anger but often veers away to make room for the coming-of-age romance between Clara and the “coolest boy in school,” Miller (Mason Thames). Clara’s relationship with Miller is sweet enough but trite.
Instead of intertwining these plots into something beautiful and nuanced, they are chopped together into a disjointed mess. If not for the few scenes where Clara interacts with her mother and Jonah, I might have thought I was watching two movies spliced together.
Key emotional beats are skimmed over, like Morgan’s backstory of practically raising her younger sister or Clara’s crushing self-blame for the accident that took her father and aunt.
Nowhere is this more frustrating than in Morgan’s character arc. Here is a woman who sacrificed her life caring for others, raising her daughter while never pursuing her own dreams, only to face crushing loss and betrayal.
Allison Williams delivers a phenomenal performance, conveying a deep internal battle through stern glances, clenched jaws and uptight posture. Unfortunately, Morgan’s growth is continuously sidestepped and wrapped with an insultingly superficial conclusion.
Regretting You settles more comfortably into Clara’s story. Grace perfectly embodies a 17-year-old girl figuring out her life, her future and relationships while grieving. Clara is impulsive and stubborn but always caring. As most 17-year-olds do, she frequently goes toe-to-toe with her mother throughout the film, but the audience never feels like it’s unjustified.
Despite its narrative flaws, Regretting You isn’t a total loss. It’s interesting to see Franco step away from his loveable goofball typecasting, and Thames brings charm and vulnerability to Miller. The film lands some funny moments, is heart-wrenching at times and makes for an easy movie night watch.
Yet it continuously strays away from everything that makes it compelling. Regretting You feels torn between what it could be and what it thinks the audience wants it to be.
By the end of the nearly two-hour trainwreck, Regretting You left me regretting my evening.
Featured image from IMDb.
