NEW YORK (OSV News) – Part teen romance, part emotionally convoluted soap opera, “Regretting You” (Paramount), director Josh Boone’s screen version of Colleen Hoover’s 2019 novel, is ill-suited to the youthful audience at which its source material was aimed. As for mature viewers, they’re likely to find the film’s proceedings both inauthentic and pat.
The action centers on mother-and-daughter duo Morgan (Allison Williams) and Clara Grant (Mckenna Grace). Flashbacks show us that 16-year-old Clara was conceived while her parents were themselves still adolescents and merely dating. But Morgan married Clara’s party-loving father, Chris (Scott Eastwood), and has dedicated herself to raising Clara ever since.
In the earlier time period, Morgan and Chris made up half of a four-way friendship rounded out by another couple, Morgan’s sister, Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald), and Chris’ best pal, Jonah (Dave Franco). Although Jonah abruptly left town for a long stretch, he recently returned, picked up with Jenny again, and got her pregnant. So the two have decided to get engaged.
With the backstory in place, things roll forward once aspiring actress Clara’s chance encounter with charming fellow high school student Miller Adams (Mason Thames), a would-be filmmaker, causes sparks to fly. But their newly established bond is complicated when Chris and Jenny are suddenly killed in a car accident.
As Morgan and Jonah struggle to cope with their grief, a dark family secret emerges and long-suppressed yearnings bubble to the surface. Kept in the dark about the older generation’s skeleton in the closet, Clara is confused and begins to manipulate Miller, using their relationship as a way of acting out against mom. For his part, Miller sees through this pretty quickly.
More insipid than tumultuous, the unfolding drama is troublingly imbued with contemporary mores out of sync with a Christian worldview. Thus self-proclaimed virgin Clara asks Miller to be patient, not until their wedding day, but until prom night. And even that short postponement eventually gets preempted. Grown characters prove equally anxious for a roll in the hay.
Such behavior is taken as a given in the narrative and, to varying degrees, romanticized as well. As a result, the movie not only rings false dramatically but morally as well.
The film contains implicitly condoned semi-graphic premarital sexual activity, an aberrant situation, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, drug use, underage drinking, a couple of instances each of profanity and crass language, frequent milder swearing, at least one rough expression, numerous crude terms and an obscene gesture. The OSV News classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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