Reminders of Him
Reminders of Him
Starring Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford
Directed by Vanessa Caswill
Six years after accidentally causing the death of her boyfriend, Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) is let out of prison and returns to her hometown in Wyoming in hopes of connecting with the daughter she gave birth to while in prison who's now in the custody of her boyfriend Scotty's (Rudy Pankow) parents, Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford). They don't want her seeing their granddaughter by any means necessary, and she tries to survive in town by trying to find a job - but finding it impossible due to her criminal record, before finding a job at a local grocery store.
One night she goes to the bookstore she and Scotty frequented only to find it has turned into a bar run by former NFL player Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers), who also happens to be Scotty's best friend and who lives across the street from his parents. When he discovers who she is, he wants nothing to do with her and holds her responsible for Scotty's death, but as he gets to know her more, he realizes that he - and Scotty's parents - have been wrong about her, as sparks start to fly.
The Good:
Maika Monroe is an underappreciated actress in today's generation, having appeared in hits "It Follows," "Watcher," and "Longlegs," proving herself a modern day scream queen. Yet she also proves she has the dramatic chops to carry a diabetes-driven sullenly sweet film like "Reminders of Him," as she seems almost pained to be appearing in such a Lifetime-wannabe movie. She portrays Kenna not as a sympathetic character who spends the whole movie crying, but as a multi-layered person who does those things, but also has a charming sense of humor and heart that rises above the lukewarm material written for her.
The story has an emotional core to it, if only it could explore it more. Kenna personifies anyone who has a criminal record who wants to re-enter society: she can't find a job because no one hires felons, she can't find a true home, and she's ostracized by her community because of the accident. She's treated as someone who purposefully killed her boyfriend and has no soul, but she does, and we see very slowly through the movie how the accident occurred and the toll it took on her. If only the movie focused more on that and not a forced love story that doesn't make sense, it could've been something tremendous.
The cinematography is decent enough for a film filled with such saccharine sweetness, even if it feels sometimes like an episodic romance series. The camerawork, the lighting, and especially the sweeping shots of vast emptiness shows in a physical level the loneliness Kenna goes through, most notably as she walks home from work down a singular road with nothing but fields on either side. Again, it feels almost out of place for a story that doesn't warrant such exquisite camerawork.
The Bad:
The movie drags on at a snail's pace, making it feel like an over two-hour epic when it reality it's only 114 minutes. It repeats itself in an almost episodic way, where each episode either begins or ends with Kenna and Ledger interacting, depending on how you see it. She can't find a job and goes to the bar and meets Ledger. She goes to Scotty's parent's house to see her kid and there's Ledger. She gets a job at a grocery store and there's Ledger. It just jumps from one scene to the next with no purpose or flow, leaving the narrative choppy, repetitive, and dry.
There's a meme from "Mean Girls" that talks about "stop trying to make fetch happen," and the Hollywood equivalent should be "stop trying to make Tyriq Withers happen." The actor has appeared in three major films in the last year, starting with the abysmally bad "I Know What You Did Last Summer" where he plans to be a football player. Then, that same year, he starred in the almost-equally abysmal "Him" where he plans to be...a football player. Now, in "Reminders of Him" (I jokingly say I don't want ANY reminders of "Him") he plays...a former football player. In all three movies he emotes the same: a strained, painful desire to act outside his limitations. Here, he's trying to appear romantic, but also sympathetic and compassionate, after trying to appear angry. He fails on every level.
The chemistry between Monroe and Withers is nonexistent, as they seemingly come off as friends rather than a budding romance. It also doesn't make sense in the story that Ledger - Scotty's supposedly best friend - never met Kenna before and only saw one mugshot of her, so he had no idea what she looked like (which is the reason he gives during the film, which, as I said, doesn't make sense). The movie focuses so much on this relationship that it forgets the main point, and in the end it feels like it rushes its conclusion like it forgot why it existed in the first place.
Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford are wasted in this movie, as they exist to make the audience hate them because of their insane, illogical hatred toward Kenna. They're the perfect villains in this movie but are so melodramatic it's laughably bad.
The film's pacing is terrible, as the majority of it moves at a snail's pace until it moves like a hare in the final half, glossing over exposition and reasoning at a lightning pace before it finally ends. If it had spread out Kenna's pain throughout the movie it would've been more earned, but since it focused more on the romance it felt rushed and unresolved by the end.
The Verdict:
Despite a strong performance from Maika Monroe, "Reminders of You" is hindered greatly by a lame leading man, a forced romance story, and lacking the true theme of the movie: grief, regret, and overcoming past mistakes.
The Score: C-
Comments
Post a Comment