WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
A tale of two love stories connected by tragedy, "Regretting You" offers audiences a bubbly yet underwhelming coming-of-age story about finding life's passion — and, confusingly, watermelon Jolly Ranchers.
The movie follows Clara (McKenna Grace) and her mom, Morgan (Allison Williams), and their relationship after an unexpected accident leaves the family devastated. They travel through Clara’s senior year of high school, pretty much arguing, awkwardly, most of the time they’re on screen. The two give solid performances, but their standout scenes are those where their dialogue isn’t with each other.
Though one scene in particular, where the two partake in a ritual of creating a mood board — a collage of pictures, text and crafts used to spark ideas or moods for a project — was actually believable. It's reminecent of a real mother daughter relationship, discussing what the future holds, especially for Clara, whose mom thinks her dreams of going to college for acting are unrealistic.
The main bulk of this movie follows the two and their relationships with, unsurprisingly, high school lovers — Clara with Miller (Mason Thames) and Morgan with Jonah (Dave Franco). The tragedy that ensues 40 minutes in is only a catalyst for the four to work out their feelings for each other in cheesy ways, specifically the end of the movie, where film-obsessed Miller makes a short film for Clara to ask her to prom — secretly recording friends, family and her, just to talk about how he’s been in love with her. Kind of creepy, but some may find it cute.
If you’re wondering where Jolly Ranchers come in, it’s Jonah’s way of telling Morgan he sees her for who she really is — the creative, watermelon-candy-loving girl of his dreams. The two have awkward chemistry, and in a strange scene, a candy ends up from one mouth to another.
Though the movie has its downfalls, the themes it explores are generally strong for a coming-of-age film. Clara and Mogran discover what they consider their "passions," whether in terms of future college goals, hobbies or romance. They both realize they might have been too hard on each other. It’s a shining sentiment in this corny romance sea.
"Regretting You" is based on Colleen Hoover’s 2019 book of the same title. The film was announced in August 2024 with Josh Boone directing.
Boone directed "The Fault in Our Stars," another romance novel adaptation that is highly praised for its general accuracy to the source material. "Regretting You" is pretty much the same in terms of accuracy, but it fell short, maybe not Boone’s fault, but Hoover’s, for a storyline that takes grief and overshadows it with romance.
Though the movie has some cute scenes and comedic moments that may draw out a few chuckles, it detracted from the theme of navigating grief by pairing it with romance. Maybe this is a good read, but these words belong on the page, not a script.
