On Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, “Regretting You,” based on the book by Colleen Hoover, was released in theaters across the U.S. The film was a touching story with enjoyable jokes and acting; however, the movie had a few flaws in its overall timeline and some unnecessary drama.
The story follows mother-daughter pair Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) and Clara Grant (Mckenna Grace) after a car crash that leaves Morgan’s husband and sister dead. Throughout the movie, Morgan and Clara rediscover love while navigating challenging times. Moreover, “Regretting You” is a heart-warming story that follows themes of the realities of loss and strained mother-daughter relationships.
The one hour and 56-minute-long film starts with a flashback into Morgan’s early life, with her then-boyfriend Chris (Scott Eastwood), her sister, Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald), and Jenny’s boyfriend Jonah (Dave Franco). Audiences are able to see the different dynamics within this small group, and they start to understand that Jonah and Morgan are dating their complete opposites, Jenny and Chris. Viewers can clearly see the tension between Chris and Morgan when Chris says his favorite version of Morgan is when she is drunk. This then leads to Morgan admitting to Jonah that she was pregnant with Chris’s child.
The movie then jumps to Morgan’s daughter, Clara, passing by Miller Adams (Mason Thames), the boy she’s been crushing on for years. When she stops to give him a ride, the audience can clearly start to see the tension between them, and viewers are instantly rooting for them to become a couple. Although we find out that Miller has a girlfriend, he soon breaks up with her to pursue Clara. Throughout the movie, their relationship opens up, and they soon start falling in love with each other.
Morgan is devastated after the loss of Chris and Jenny, and she struggles with grief and parenting Clara. Her sadness soon turns to anger when the hurtful truth of Chris and Jenny’s affair surfaces. Jonah is a constant rock for Morgan to depend on, and except for one instance when Jonah realizes Elijah, Jonah and Jenny’s son, could be Chris’s child, he’s there for Morgan and Clara. Because they have spent so much time together, Jonah and Morgan soon realize that their feelings from high school have resurfaced. The tension from the pair gives the viewers a hopeful feeling for their future, while also adding to the web of secrets in the movie.
“Regretting You” is a solid movie with great comedic timing to lighten up the dramatic and romantic tones of the movie. The soundtrack featuring songs from popular artists Role Model and Noah Kahn and the original score by Nathaniel Walcott creates the deep yearning sensation that audiences could feel from the characters, while also lightening the mood.
There was conflict throughout the movie, some of it necessary, but most unnecessary. The drama was primarily caused by Clara’s inability to be compassionate and self-aware of how her actions made other people feel. Her fixation on the negative aspects of her mother continuously creates distance between them and causes fiery fights. While Morgan does her best to avoid these conflicts, Miller just accepts these parts of Clara and tries to move past them. His calm persona finally comes to an end when Clara embarrasses him in front of his teacher (Jonah), her mother, and friends. The audience finally gets to see his defiance of Clara’s tirade during their first fight after her birthday.
Although this movie was cute and heartwarming, it had some major plot holes and timeline issues. There is some switching of timelines, but the real problem was that there was no indication of how long it had actually been after the crash. There was barely any grieving period for anyone in the movie, especially Clara, who had supposedly lost her favorite people in the world. There were also some very important missing details, such as Jenny’s funeral and Morgan not telling Clara about her potential half-brother, Elijah.
With “Regretting You” being Hoover’s second book-turned film, viewers weren’t expecting very much, but they will be pleasantly surprised. Although there were timeline issues and plot holes, the storyline was much better than expected, and it had an overall heartwarming theme of love and repairing broken relationships. “Regretting You” achieves the ranking of three out of five feathers.
