Regretting You (2025) Review!!!

Synopsis – Centers on the strained relationship between young mother Morgan Grant and her teenage daughter Clara, exacerbated by Morgan’s husband Chris’s tragic death, forcing them to navigate life’s challenges together.

My Take – With last year’s It Ends with Us turning out to be a massive box office success, grossing $351 million against its $25m budget, despite receiving mixed reviews and being mired in controversy, it was unsurprising that multiple works from author Colleen Hoover immediately got picked up for cinematic treatments.

And the first out of the gate is this latest Josh Boone directorial with a story centered on dealing with grief, betrayal, and loss. But while his earlier acclaimed work in similar category, 2014’s The Fault in Our Stars, managed to strike a keen balance between weepy drama and romance, however this time around, the combination of those same narrative strands are delivered far less effectively here.

Instead, making the end product feel a lot closer to the kind of generic Nicholas Sparks adaptations that seemed to come out annually nearly a decade ago.

Sure, it works as well enough within the confines of its genre and even at times manages to move you, but it also lacks the narrative smoothness that could have elevated it from heartfelt to haunting. The sincerity in the intentions is visible, but the film never reaches for anything beyond the familiar. Often slipping into the formulaic rom-com tropes as it plods along to its poignant but generic conclusion.

What could have been a moving story about forgiveness and family instead ends up feeling glossy and hollow. It possess a wealth of talent that bring good performances, with McKenna Grace and Mason Thames particularly shining in their roles. But in the end, the film cannot overcome the genre stereotypes and ultimately just ticks every box expected.

The story initially begins in the past and follows a group of high-schoolers navigating love and difficult choices. Morgan (Allison Williams) is dating Chris (Scott Eastwood) when she discovers she’s pregnant. Her sister Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald) is with Jonah (Dave Franco), who secretly has feelings for Morgan.

Moving to seventeen years later, Morgan and Chris are now married with a teenage daughter, Clara (Mckenna Grace), while Jonah and Jenny have recently reunited and have a months-old son. Life has reshuffled the deck but left a quiet awkwardness in the air, a residue of unspoken choices. Even Morgan bears a grudge against Jonah for abandoning her sister, and their friend group, more than a decade ago—but underneath the anger, there’s still a shared attraction.

Meanwhile, Clara too is navigating her own maze of teenage confusion, rebellion and love in the form of Miller (Mason Thames), an aspiring film student who lives with his grandfather (Clancy Brown)—and just happens to be the son of the drug dealer that the central quartet knew back in their school days. Then, one unexpected incident shatters the fragile calm and forces everyone to confront truths they’ve neatly hidden away.

From here on, the writer Susan McMartin‘s script wades back into emotionally turbulent waters as Clara’s relationship with her mother reaches a breaking point as their trust in each other deteriorates, while her feelings for Miller grow stronger.

Meanwhile, Jonah and Morgan grapple with their unresolved emotions, prompting the audience to revisit the familiar will-they, won’t-they dynamic. Clara also engages in a rebellious attempt to score points against her mother for moving on from her father so quickly and Jonah questions the validity of his son’s biology.

Indeed, the film has a lot going on in its early scenes, and director Boone deftly charts each of these relationships as well as the various ties between all the characters with an impressive precision. He even handles the central tragedy that drives the story, and how his characters progressively grapple with it, especially well.

However, the adapted screenplay often feels stitched together instead of woven. Scenes don’t always flow into one another; you can sense the effort to connect events that never quite merge organically. Mainly as it seems to be bothered only about tick off many boxes on the schmaltz-drama bingo card: abandonment issues, unrequited love, dead parents, cancer-ridden relatives and even one big, rain-soaked romantic moment. Something that only serves to unravel any freshness the formula had, returning it to the tried-and-tested stereotypes the genre is famous for.

There are moments in the film that show flashes of the emotional film it could have been. We even glimpse it, now and again. Particularly elements about a mother and daughter trying to find their way through grief and betrayal to some sort of happiness. Even Boone‘s direction occasionally delivers visual poetry, particularly in the film’s quieter scenes, which recall the bittersweet tone of classic YA romances.

The soundtrack, filled with soft guitar scores and nostalgic piano cues, fits the film’s melancholy mood. For a brief while, it feels like the film might find its rhythm. But those moments are fleeting.

Thankfully, the performances keep the film grounded. Allison Williams anchors the story with sincerity, bringing real feeling to Morgan’s conflicting emotions like anger, guilt, heartbreak, and the instinct to hold her family together. Dave Franco complements her well, delivering a calm, quietly affecting turn as Jonah, who carries emotional restraint like a lifelong burden.

Mckenna Grace captures the raw confusion of a teenager caught between rebellion and vulnerability. The role demands the maturity of a young adult with the vulnerability of a child, and Grace masters the balance brilliantly. Mason Thames, too, boasts some real star power in another impressive turn following his performances in this year’s How to Train Your Dragon and Black Phone 2. In smaller roles, Scott Eastwood, Willa Fitzgerald and even Clancy Brown manage to leaves an impression. On the whole, ‘Regretting You‘ is a serviceable tearjerker that delivers mostly familiar drama with some genuine feeling.