Reminders of Him

Most romance drama type films are fairly typical in their creation, however "Reminders of Him" is a bit different in that it involves the loss of a young woman's boyfriend in a car accident, only unbeknownst to the boyfriend's best buddy that this young woman was his buddy's girlfriend. It's an interesting turn of events that definitely goes against the odds. 

After a perfect outing with her boyfriend, Scotty Landry (Rudy Pankow), Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe), makes an unbearable mistake that sends her to prison. Seven years later, Kenna returns to her hometown in Wyoming, hoping to rebuild her life and earn the chance to reunite with her young daughter, Diem Landry (Zoe Kosovic), whom she has never known. When Diem's custodial grandparents, Patrick and Grace Landry (Bradley Whitford and Lauren Graham) respectively, adamantly refuse Kenna's attempts to see her daughter, Kenna discovers unexpected compassion, and then something truer and deeper, with former NFL player and local bar owner Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers), who is Kenna's late boyfried's buddy. As their secret romance develops, so do the dangers for both of them, leading Kenna toward heartbreak and, ultimately, the hope for a second chance. 

Others to round out the cast are Nicholas Duvernay as Roman, Jennifer Robertson as Ruth, Lainey Wilson as Gage, Hilary Jardine as Mary Anne, Monika Myers as Lady Diana, Skye MacDonald as Stacey, Jillian Walchuck as Whitney and Laird Reghenas as Gage's manager. 

This was directed with compassion, heart all with a tenseness about it considering the story line by Vanessa Caswill ("Love at First Sight" '23) plus TV, shorts and a music video. Considering the fact that she has only one feature film to her credit, she's an accomplished director. Certainly all the shorts and TV she has directed has served her well. She had the task to encourage her actors to do a substantial amount of character flip-flopping with the characters, especially the leads, Monroe and Withers, and with that, she will receive more work. It was effectively penned well by writers, Lauren Levine and Colleen Hoover (novels and videos), based on the novel by Colleen Hoover. Because the premise of this was somewhat different than we've seen in other romance dramas, it allowed its audience to be more interested in it. In fact, I felt it was far more interesting than I expected. The different family dynamics were complex, yet it was made clear that one could only imagine what it would be like in to be in either Ledger or Kenna's place--this was implemented quite well. Really, other than a few short moments soon after the film started that were a bit slow and were a bit tough to believe, it was a cohesive and tightly written film. I'm sure that one of the writer's that wrote the novel the film was based on didn't hurt.

If you like romance drama films, this will hit home, especially given that the story was something that one doesn't see in this particular genre. This has effective directing, interesting writing and the chemistry between the two leads, Monroe and Withers are worth the price of admission.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                     Rated: PG-13                                    115mins.