We kicked things off in that weird fog between Christmas and New Year’s, where time feels fake, and so do responsibilities. Meaghan and Shirin weren’t even sure what week it was. But one thing they were sure about: they finally had to talk about Regretting You, the Colleen Hoover adaptation from October 2025 that they’d been putting off for too long. The guilt had been following them like a bad New Year’s hangover.
We’ve talked about Hoover before. A lot. We’ve given her three full episodes, and there’s a definite “love to hate her” vibe here. So, of course, we were kicking ourselves for skipping Regretting You when it came out. And now, with Reminders of Him and Verity both slated for release in 2026, it felt like the right time to finally dive into this one.
Let’s be honest: the frustration isn’t just about Hoover’s prolific output; it’s also about the weird trend of serious actors popping up in these movies. We noticed it with It Ends With Us, but it’s only gotten more baffling. Anne Hathaway? Dakota Johnson? Josh Hartnett? In a Hoover adaptation? What parallel universe is this? And don’t even get us started on the horror connection (yes, really), more on that later.
Note
The following is an editorialized transcript of our weekly literary podcast. If you would like to listen to the podcast, click the play button above orlisten on your favorite platform with the links below.
From Page to Screen: Horror Vibes in a Romance Adaptation
Before diving into the movie, we had to point out this strange pipeline: horror actors are now the faces of romantic dramas. In Regretting You, we’ve got Alison Williams (from Get Out), Dave Franco (who directed The Rental and starred in a bunch of thrillers), and Grace (from Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Hill House, and Sabrina). Even Mason Thames, who plays Miller in this film, has his roots in The Black Phone. What gives?
This is happening again in the upcoming Reminders of Him, starring Micah Monroe (another horror staple) and Tyriq Withers. We started wondering, is Hoover’s brand of drama-turned-romance actually appealing to actors who usually live in more emotionally intense genres? Maybe it’s the “serious” edge that makes these projects attractive. Or maybe it’s just trendy.
Still, it’s strange. Especially when these movies end up being kinda mid, and you’ve got these major names attached to something that feels like a streaming release, not a big theatrical event.
Plot Summary: So Much Happens, Yet Nothing Really Happens
Okay, so what’s Regretting You about? Here’s the run-down:
We follow Morgan, played by Alison Williams, from her high school years into adulthood. She’s with Chris (Scott Eastwood), your typical high school jock. She dreams big. He probably doesn’t. Her sister Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald) is also in the picture, dating Jonah (Dave Franco). But there’s obvious tension between Morgan and Jonah that screams “wrong people, wrong relationships.”
Morgan gets pregnant. She marries Chris. Fast-forward 17 years, and they’ve got a daughter named Clara. Jenny and Jonah break up, reconnect years later, and have a baby, or so we think. Then tragedy hits: Chris and Jenny die in a car crash. Together. Yep, that’s suspicious.
Turns out, they’d been having an affair for years. The baby Jenny just had? Not Jonah’s. It’s Chris’s. Chaos ensues.
Morgan and Jonah are left to pick up the pieces. They start to reconnect. Meanwhile, Clara (played by McKenna Grace) is off living her own YA-romance side plot with Miller (Mason Thames). There’s some mother-daughter tension, mostly stemming from Clara not knowing the full story. Morgan tries to protect her daughter’s view of her dad and aunt, but that secrecy ends up causing even more drama.
By the end, there’s a promposal (yes, really), a resolution between Morgan and Jonah, and a lot of eye-rolling from us.
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So… Was It Good? Well…
Let’s just say it: this movie was forgettable.
Not terrible. Just… aggressively fine.
That’s actually kind of weird for a Colleen Hoover adaptation. We’re used toIt Ends With Us-level chaos. November 9-style bonkers. This one was tame. Too tame. The central drama (infidelity, grief, lost love) should’ve had us in tears or throwing things at the screen. Instead, we were mostly checking the time. It felt like a Nicholas Sparks movie with horror actors in it, and that combination just didn’t work.
And sure, the film tried to tackle some serious stuff. Grief, betrayal, forgiveness, generational relationships, all fair game. But it wrapped everything up in such a clean, overly tidy ending that it didn’t feel earned. Real life is messier. Even Colleen Hoover books are messier.
Also, we couldn’t help but feel like there were too many subplots. Clara’s teenage love life felt unnecessary. If this story is about Morgan and Jonah, and the fallout from this emotional bomb, why dilute it with side quests? We needed more time with the adults to really feel the weight of what they were going through.
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Final Thoughts: We’re Still Confused About These Adaptations
Here’s where we landed: Regretting You wasn’t bad enough to hate, but it also wasn’t good enough to care about. It sits in this weird in-between where we’re just sort of like, “Okay… what was the point?”
The performances weren’t awful. McKenna Grace and Mason Thames were charming. Alison Williams did a decent job. Dave Franco, on the other hand, was giving us weird vibes. His character felt inconsistent, and we couldn’t tell if it was the writing or the performance. He just wasn’t believable as someone Morgan would forgive so easily.
And speaking of the writing: yikes. Some of the dialogue was straight-up cringe. Corny one-liners, overly dramatic exchanges, and scenes that felt like first drafts. It didn’t help that the setting had been moved from Texas (in the book) to North Carolina, which, again, added to that Nicholas Sparks feeling.
Here’s the thing: Hoover adaptations are clearly not going anywhere. With Reminders of Him and Verity on the horizon, and rumours that November 9 might be coming too (please, someone stop them), we’re bracing ourselves for more.
But after this film, we’re left wondering if Hoover’s writing actually works onscreen. It’s melodramatic. It’s full of internal monologue. It thrives on shock value and twisty emotional arcs. That stuff is hard to translate to a 90-minute movie. Maybe her books are better left on the page, or maybe someone just needs to crack the adaptation formula better.
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A Few Silver Linings and One Last Rant
If there’s one thing we’ll give this movie, it’s that it didn’t overdo the trauma. Yes, there was loss and betrayal, but it wasn’t too much. Compared to other Hoover stories, this one felt relatively grounded, which might be the problem. Without the usual “what the hell did I just read/watch” energy, the movie felt flat.
We also want to shout out the fact that it actually made money. A $30 million budget and $90 million box office return? That’s not nothing. Clearly, there’s an audience. Maybe it was the Hoover name. Maybe it was the cast. Maybe it was just a slow movie month. Either way, it did well, even if the Rotten Tomatoes critic score was a brutal 27%. (Audience score? 85%, which is bonkers.)
At the end of the day, we don’t regret watching Regretting You… but we sure as hell won’t be watching it again.
Let’s see if Reminders of Him brings the chaos we need. Otherwise, we might just go back and rewatch It Ends With Us, because at least that gave us something to scream about.
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