The young actor Maika Monroe made a substantial impression on critics and audiences alike in the 2014 indie horror picture “It Follows.” Since then, she has appeared in quite a few more horror films, but her range is expanding. In “Reminders of Him,” directed by Vanessa Caswill and adapted from a Colleen Hoover novel, Monroe proves that she can sell a 110 percent shameless tear-jerker like nobody’s business.
The movie begins with Kenna (Monroe) walking into her hometown, Laramie, Wyo. She has alienated everyone in her life to such an extent that nobody picked her up after she completed her prison sentence. As she is walking, she sees a cross on the side of the road — a memorial marker — and pulls it out of the ground.
Upon her arrival in Laramie, all Kenna wants to do is see her daughter, whom she gave birth to soon after her sentencing for vehicular manslaughter. The crime in question took the life of Scotty, the father of her little girl. Kenna’s done her time, but Scotty’s parents, who’ve been raising the kid, want her out of town. The former in-laws are played by Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford, who suppress their natural charm behind scowls they emit from their living room window. (Zoe Kosovic, who plays the little girl, doesn’t have to do anything but be adorable, and she aces the assignment.) The only person in the extended family who will stand by Kenna is a local bar owner named Ledger (the striking, memorable Tyriq Withers), who was Scotty’s best friend.
That cross Kenna pulled from the ground? It’s dedicated to Scotty, and her conviction is that Scotty hated memorials, so she stows it under the sink in the motel she holes up in. In flashbacks that grow more detailed, the movie demonstrates what Kenna keeps in her heart: that she and Scotty were soul mates. Their connection also holds the key to the true explanation of Scotty’s death, which provides the movie’s wrenching climax.
Hoover’s best-selling work isn’t hearts-and-flowers stuff. Prison sentences don’t usually figure in heteronormative romance narratives, but when they do, usually it’s the male character who’s served time. Hoover’s books often explore grief (definitely here) and also yearning (also definitely here, and the ostensibly forbidden kind).
“Reminders of Him” deserves credit for serving it all up unabashedly and without a single wink. This is largely thanks to the stupendous Monroe, and also Withers, who has appeared in his fair share of horror films (“Him,” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer”). He brings real layering to what could have been a stock conflicted character. Without going into too much embarrassing detail, I will state that the movie gets the waterworks flowing beautifully.
Reminders of Him Rated PG-13 for mature themes. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. In theaters.
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