Reminders of Him is a 2026 American romance film directed by Vanessa Caswill from a screenplay by Colleen Hoover and Lauren Levine, based on the 2022 novel by Hoover. It stars Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Lainey Wilson (in her film debut), Lauren Graham, and Bradley Whitford.
Paroled from prison six years after being convicted of vehicular manslaughter of her boyfriend Scotty, Kenna attempts to meet her young daughter born during her incarceration, but faces resistance from everyone except bar owner Ledger, who had been Scotty's best friend. They grow closer, working together to heal past wounds to be able to move forward.
Reminders of Him premiered at Los Angeles on March 9, 2026, and was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on March 13, 2026. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $89 million against a $25 million budget.
Contents
Plot
Kenna Rowan pleads guilty to vehicular manslaughter for a car accident that resulted in the death of her boyfriend, Scotty Landry. Six years later, she is released from prison on parole and moves back to her hometown. Kenna hopes to meet her five-year-old daughter Diem, whom she gave birth to during her sentence and has been raised by Scotty's parents, Grace and Patrick.
Kenna moves into a low-income housing complex, where she adopts a kitten at her landlady's insistence. She also befriends Lady Diana, her younger neighbor with Down Syndrome whose father is incarcerated. After a fruitless day of job-searching, Kenna wanders into her and Scotty's favorite bookstore, which has been converted into a bar.
Kenna and the owner hit it off, but she declines his invitation to go on a date. She hastily leaves after realizing that he is Ledger Ward, Scotty's lifelong best friend who was in the NFL during their relationship. Ledger still lives across the street from Grace and Patrick and acts as a surrogate uncle to Diem. Grace, meanwhile, dodges Diem's questions about her mother's absence.
With the help of Anna, a sympathetic grocery store worker, Kenna finally finds a job as a grocery bagger. She stops by the Landry house, but Ledger, who is then leaving, realizes she is Diem's mother. He, Grace, and Patrick still blame Kenna for Scotty's death and bar her from seeing her daughter.
While Grace and Diem are out shopping, they nearly wander into Kenna's store, but Ledger intercepts them and prevents Diem from seeing Kenna. After receiving some advice from his friend and co-worker Roman, he visits Kenna and they kiss. However, she pushes Ledger away, out of fear that they will complicate things further.
After a romantic date, Ledger insists on knowing how the evening of Scotty's death unfolded. Kenna then reads to him from her diary; the accident was caused because both she and Scotty were high, and Kenna was able to free herself from the car. The blood supply to Scotty's arm had stopped, so when Kenna could not find a pulse, she assumed he was dead.
Desperate, Kenna sought help, but no one came to her aid. She was eventually arrested, unconscious, by the police. Overwhelmed with guilt over his death and the fact that she had not known Scotty was still alive, Kenna pleaded guilty. Only afterward did she learn that she was pregnant. Kenna also tearfully reveals that she never got the chance to hold Diem after giving birth, because the latter was born prematurely.
Cast
Maika Monroe as Kenna Rowan
Tyriq Withers as Ledger Ward
Rudy Pankow as Scotty Landry
Lainey Wilson as Amy Matthews
Nicholas Duvernay as Roman
Lauren Graham as Grace Landry
Bradley Whitford as Patrick Landry
Jennifer Robertson as Ruth Clayton
Zoe Kosovic as Diem Landry
Monika Myers as Lady Diana
Hilary Jardine as Mary Anne Walker
Natascha Girgis as Ivy
Production
In October 2024, Universal Pictures announced an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel Reminders of Him was in the works, with Hoover and Lauren Levine writing the script. Hoover and Levine are also responsible for the production of the film together with Gina Matthews. Later in December of that year, Vanessa Caswill was announced as director. In March 2025, Maika Monroe joined the cast. In April, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Lauren Graham, Nicholas Duvernay, Bradley Whitford, and Lainey Wilson joined the cast.
Filming
Principal photography began in Calgary on April 16, 2025, and wrapped on June 12, 2025.
Post-production
Tom Howe composed the film's score.
Release
Reminders of Him premiered at Los Angeles on March 9, 2026, and was released in the United States on March 13, 2026. It was previously scheduled to be released on February 13, 2026 and February 6.
Reception
Box office
In the United States and Canada, Reminders of Him was released alongside Undertone, and was projected to gross $10–15 million from 3,402 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $8 million on its first day, including $1.9 million in Thursday box office previews, which led to an $18 million opening weekend. As of May 15, 2026, it has grossed $49 million in the United States and Canada, and $40 million overseas for a worldwide total of $89 million.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 117 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Adapted with admirable restraint and sensitive performances, Reminders of Him doesn't stir the passions enough to qualify as quality melodrama but does contain a respectable amount of grace notes." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 49 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while 66% surveyed by PostTrak said they would definitely recommend it.
Eileen Jones of Jacobin wrote that the film had "nothing going on but vague sappy fantasies pumped up to hysterical soap opera levels".