Much can be said about the modern rom-com, and if anyone has hooked a fresh spin, it’s author Colleen Hoover. Hoover has a pretty stellar Hollywood track record thus far—both of her adaptations have done stellar box office, though the whirlwind controversy around It Ends With Us may have soured some fans. Regretting You feels like the rom-com of a bygone era, gifting viewers with two stellar love stories wrapped in a complicated web of grief and tragedy. Not often can a tearjerker manage to uplift at the same time, but such is the case here. Anyone with a dysfunctional family will find the script genuine and relatable. The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone has played in this sandbox before, and thus knows exactly how to fiddle with emotions. He unearths the sugary-sweet chemistry between real life couple Mason Thames and Mckenna Grace; their bond bleeds onto the screen in a rare bout of perfect casting. Allison Williams and Dave Franco are also quite good, selling their fiery passion. Now on Blu-Ray aided by a smattering of fan-pleasing extras, Regretting You sweetens the deal, just in case you missed it in theaters.
After opening with a not-so-surprising pregnancy revelation unveiled in flashback, the connection between Morgan (Williams) and Jonah (Franco) already begins to take shape. Despite not being the father to her child, their love sprouts from the very beginning. Even if it seems forbidden, there’s a tangible push/pull to their dynamic. As the film speeds up back to present day, Jonah has a newborn baby with Morgan’s sister, Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald), whilst Morgan and her childhood beau, Chris (Scott Eastwood), have built their life around their own daughter, Clara (Mckenna Grace). On the surface, things appear rosy between both couples. The truth is another matter entirely, one that rears its ugly head when (spoiler alert!) Jenny and Chris are tragically killed in a car accident.
That Chris and Jenny were together at the time of the incident would be strange on its own, but Jonah and Morgan quickly unearth a decades-long affair that makes them question everything. The characters here are flawed, with the script giving them plenty of room for depth without judgement. Perhaps linking together so soon after the horrific deaths of their significant others should feel wrong. Yet, in the wake of the revelations, can you really fault them for it? Williams and Franco sell their parental figures as two very different adults whose love has been rekindled in the most unlikely of ways. Without this relationship at the core, we would just have another typical rom-com—nothing wrong with that, but Regretting You has much more on its mind.
Instead of solely focusing on Morgan and Jonah, we are treated to a parallel love story between Clara and her cutesy romance with AMC theater-worker Miller (Thames). Everything about this portion, from the ground up, is downright adorable. It probably helps that the duo together are just precious, but even in this aspect, both Clara and Miller are not presented as perfect. Miller could have easily fallen into the whole badboy trope, but he’s the first to use the “L” word. The aspiring film student seems to have a clear direction in life, even as his grandfather suffers the crippling effects of cancer. Clara juggles the death of her father and aunt with grace, although she acts out as any teen would once she discovers the truth.
Regretting You may not be the romance of the decade or anything, but it lays its pure intentions bare at the start. Josh Boone’s picture takes a sweet-enough rom-com and dips it in sadness, hopeful and positive despite the upsetting trappings. The Blu-Ray release comes complete with only a few extras, including four short featurettes that speak to the difficulties in adapting a beloved novel for the big screen. My favorite of those was the prom-posal section, wherein several members of the cast swoon over Miller’s prom-posal, and contemplate receiving one of their own from a special admirer. There are a handful of deleted scenes, but beyond some texture to the tears, none have substantial heft to change anything major. It would have been sweet to gift viewers with a commentary track featuring the cast or director Josh Boone. Thankfully, the movie itself makes up for any shortcomings in the features department. Sweeter than a Jolly Rancher and just as colorful, Regretting You tugs at the heartstrings with its special story about grief amid two parallel romances.
Fall hard along with Regretting You, now on Blu-Ray.
