Regretting You Review: Josh Boone’s Film Neither Satisfies The Adult Nor The Teenager In Us!
Josh Boone's film is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's book. Read our review here.
2 / 5
Movies on modern-day relationships are quite interesting to watch. More so because one gets to relate to most of it, and comparatively its easier to place ourselves in such stories too. However, not every film hits the right chord. Dull writing and surface-level treatment of complex relationships can kill the interest rather instantly. And I had the exact same thoughts while watching Josh Boone’s directorial Regretting You. The film is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestseller of the same name. It stars Mckenna Grace, Mason Thames, Allison Williams and Dave Franco is pivotal roles. The 1 hour 59 minute long film caters to both the teenage and the adult in you, but it hardly gives us anything substantial to be discussed later. Here’s my two cents on the movie. Read on.
Plot
The film starts with a brief introduction of four characters: Morgan Grant (Allison Williams), her boyfriend Chris (Scott Eastwood), her sister Jenny Davidson (Willa Fitzgerald) and Jonah Sullivan (Dave Franc). Morgan is pregnant with Chris’s child, and cut to 17 years later, they are both married with a young daughter, Clara Grant (Mckenna Grace). Jenny and Jonah also have a child, but out of wedlock; however, they plan to get married soon. Things go upside down when Morgan loses her husband and sister in an accident, but in no time, this grief turns into a moment of betrayal when some hidden truths unfold. Simultaneously, there is another teenage love story that builds up between Clara and Miller Adams (Mason Thames), but their dynamics go through a sudden change after Clara loses her father. All the characters navigate through the tough times; however, the ending here is a happy one, again!
Writing, Screenplay
We dive straight into the writing, which I found unappealing at all. The film strives to handle a lot of relationship problems at once, but ends up focusing on neither. There seems to be a clear lack of clarity in the writing, and it’s evident in the way the characters deal with their respective problems. It’s as if the adults aren’t acting like adults, and teenagers are painfully immature, which tests our patience. Both are so extreme that I could not connect, resonate, feel, or remotely empathise with either of the characters. Here, the blame is also on the superficial approach to telling a story about problems that are very much present in today’s time. The dynamics between a mother-daughter, or even lovers, feel so half-baked that they themselves seem not to be interested in dealing with the chaos much. To patch things up, the film resorts to childish, contrived moments that attempt to create emotional resolution. Safe to say, that it’s a very dumbed-down version of a film on relationships where characters are not evolved enough to handle these complexities.
The screenplay feels dragged and boring, and at one point, I was convinced that I did not want to be a part of this family drama. During a dinner table scene on Clara’s birthday, Miller leaves the party halfway, saying “can’t do it anymore”, I kinda related to him the most as I had given up on the film too!
Performances
All the actors seem to be pretty detached from their respective characters, which creates a lack of conviction in their performances.
Allison Williams as Morgan Grant is a woman who always kept her husband or daughter before her, only beginning to realise her worth after the tragic accident. However, there is only a limited arc to this character and her understanding of the situation, because a woman who had seen so much, I don’t think she was handling it well. Allison Williams is effective when dealing with Morgan’s personal problems, but the emotional disconnect is apparent opposite with McKenna Grace’s Clara, and this mother-daughter duo left me unimpressed and unmoved!
TBH, I could not empathise with McKenna Grace’s Clara at all, and nor was I curious to know how she navigated through the ups and downs that came along her way. Moreover, because the character’s ignorant attitude towards every difficult situation is just thrown at us with little to no depth about who she really is, except that she scores an A in all subjects and has a huge crush on Miller Adams. We are given no time to like or even dislike this character.
Mason Thames as Miller Adams delivers a decent performance. If I talk about sanity and a clear-headed personality, then among all the characters, it was only Miller Adams. He is the only character who is given the right kind of closure in Regretting You.
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Verdict
As much as Regretting You tries to portray real problems in relationships of all age groups, it does not really bother to give them the needed attention. There is hardly any “battling through the problems”; it’s more like a “drunk night will solve all the problems”. The writing is so weak and emotionally distant that the film fails to deliver any solid, memorable moments that one would care to even discuss. The conflicts, the love, the characters, nothing really comes together to create a convincing narrative. However, if you just wish to watch a film that deals with modern-day relationship issues but you also do not wish to take many advice from it, then this can be a good watch.
First Published: October 24, 2025 1:10 PM
