So, after watching the movie in theaters, I went back to reread the book review I did of Regretting You to see how my expectations matched up with the adaptation. There were honestly a lot of things to love about this movie (especially as a hopeless romantic), but also, I felt like a lot of what I felt for the book carried over to the movie as well. 

First, I’ll start with the fact that the acting (aside from some romantic “chemistry” that I’ll get into later) was spot on. I absolutely loved Allison Williams as Morgan and I think she was probably the highlight of the movie. My least favorite out of the romantic leads was probably Dave Franco. I could not for the life of me feel any chemistry between Jonah and Morgan throughout the movie and I realized after rereading my book review, that I felt the same way in the book as well. While I like Dave Franco as an actor, he felt… ill-suited for this role in my personal opinion. 

With Clara, I absolutely loved Mckenna Grace’s interpretation of the character. She made Clara equal parts moody, annoying teenager as well as loving, devoted daughter. I think I liked her character a lot more in the movie than I did in the book, but the director brought a lot of comic relief to the mother-daughter scenes that made Clara feel more human and less teenaged-monster. Miller (Mason Thames) was my FAVORITE. Am I the only one who thinks Mason Thames looks like a young Patrick Swayze?? Patrick Swayze is one of my all time favorite male actors (Dirty Dancing (1987) anyone??), and Mason Thames gave me a lot of those “tough boy but a super teddy bear” vibes. 

As far as the plot goes and changes from book-to-movie, I personally didn’t see many huge deviations, but a lot of the emotional turmoil was left out or brushed over for some things. Honestly, though, it’s been so long since I read the book, that I can’t give a true book vs. movie analysis. 

Spoilers ahead.

So, obviously there are going to be spoilers for the book and the movie (all of the main plot points were kept the same), which means don’t keep reading if you don’t want things to get spoiled. 

I feel like these spoilers are just going to be one huge rant, so here it goes. I HATE JENNY AND CHRIS. Like the whole time I’m watching this movie, I keep looking over at my friend and going, “What terrible people.” Like literally, what shitty people. Did they not stop to think that their little romp could legitimately wreck Clara’s mental health, destroy Morgan’s life, cause massive upheaval for poor Elijah, and dear God, like are they only thinking about themselves??? And how the hell do you let it go on for THAT LONG?????

Also, with the Regretting You movie, I hate to break it to you guys, but we STILL don’t get closure. All I wanted in the book was for Morgan to read the letters and get SOMETHING as to why the two people closest to her decided to do such a horrible thing. I was hoping that with the movie, Morgan would decide to read the letters. But NOPE. They got burned. I will wonder about these letters for the rest of my life. Thanks a lot, Colleen Hoover. 

Overall, this was a decent movie with romance, family drama, and a beautiful mother-daughter relationship that makes me think of my own daughter. Unfortunately, though, despite the laughs and cute romance scenes, it still felt firmly meh just like the book. Not the worst, not the best, but still something fun to pass the time. I’m looking forward to Verity and Reminders of Him much more than I was ever looking forward to this movie.