There’s something disorienting about watching Maika Monroe cry.
Not because she can’t do it—she absolutely can. But because for the last half-decade, we’ve watched her run. From demons in It Follows. From Nicolas Cage in Longlegs. From alien invasions and backwoods psychos and whatever fresh hell A24 dreamed up that week. Monroe’s been the final girl so many times she could teach a masterclass. So seeing her here, in the first trailer for Reminders of Him, standing still and emotionally shattered… it’s a reset button nobody asked for but maybe we needed.
Universal Pictures dropped the trailer this week for Vanessa Caswill’s adaptation of the Colleen Hoover bestseller, and—look, I’ll admit it—I went in skeptical. Hoover’s novels inspire a very specific kind of internet discourse. Passionate defenders. Equally passionate critics. The kind of cultural split that makes you wonder if everyone read the same book. But this? This actually looks… good?
A Story Built on Mistakes and Second Chances
The setup is deceptively simple, which is usually where these things either soar or collapse. Kenna (Monroe) spent seven years in prison for a “tragic accident” we’re not yet privy to. She returns to Wyoming—because of course it’s Wyoming, where redemption apparently comes with mountain views—desperate to reconnect with Diem, the daughter she’s never known. The custodial grandparents (Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford, doing their best “we’re protecting this child” face) slam that door shut. Hard.
Enter Ledger (Tyriq Withers, making his feature debut after the series Him), a former NFL player turned bar owner with ties to Diem. He’s the only person who doesn’t immediately treat Kenna like a pariah. Their connection deepens. Secrets accumulate. Hearts get involved—which, in a film subtitled with lines like “You can’t rewrite the past, but you can start again,” means someone’s getting wrecked by Act Three.
What’s interesting here—and I mean genuinely interesting, not “interesting for a romance adaptation” interesting—is the texture. The trailer doesn’t sell us a meet-cute. It sells us consequence. Every frame Kenna occupies feels weighted with guilt, longing, and the exhausting work of trying to convince people you’ve changed when they’d rather remember who you were. Monroe’s performance, even in 90-second snippets, carries that exhaustion beautifully. She’s not playing “reformed woman seeks love.” She’s playing “I don’t know if I deserve this, but I’m trying anyway.”
Vanessa Caswill’s Steady Hand
Director Vanessa Caswill comes from the world of elevated TV—Little Women, Gold Digger, and that underseen gem Thirteen. Her previous feature, Love at First Sight, was a perfectly serviceable rom-com that knew its limits and stayed within them. Nothing revolutionary, but nothing embarrassing either. Here, she’s working with a much heavier emotional register, and the early signs suggest she knows how to handle it.
The cinematography (no DP credit released yet) leans into muted earth tones and natural light—Wyoming as both sanctuary and cage. There’s a recurring motif of Kenna standing outside looking in: outside the grandparents’ house, outside the bar, outside her own daughter’s life. Visual metaphor? Sure. Obvious? Maybe. Effective? Annoyingly, yes.
The supporting cast brings unexpected heft. Graham and Whitford as the protective grandparents could’ve been one-note obstacles, but both actors specialize in playing “complicated reasonable people,” which might give this story the moral ambiguity it needs. Rudy Pankow (Outer Banks) shows up in what looks like a flashback role—possibly the boyfriend from that “perfect outing” that ended in catastrophe. Lainey Wilson, the country music star, appears briefly, and I’m curious if her casting means the soundtrack leans into Americana melancholy. God, I hope so.
The Colleen Hoover Factor
Let’s address the elephant wearing a BookTok crown: this is a Colleen Hoover adaptation. Her novels are publishing phenomena—It Ends With Us sold millions, sparked necessary conversations about domestic violence, and also inspired some truly baffling discourse about romanticism versus realism. Hoover co-wrote this screenplay with Lauren Levine (who’s also producing), which could be either a safeguard against unfaithful adaptation or a recipe for overcorrection.
The book was published in 2022, relatively recent by adaptation standards, which means the fanbase is active. They’ll show up. The question is whether Caswill and team can make something that stands alone—something that works even if you’ve never heard of Verity or November 9 or any of Hoover’s other titles that sound like they belong on a calendar.
Early signs? Promising. The all-female filmmaking team (Caswill directing, Hoover and Levine writing, Gina Matthews producing alongside Levine and Hoover) brings a perspective that feels intentional rather than incidental. This isn’t a story about women filtered through a male gaze. It’s a story by women about the impossible work of forgiving yourself when no one else will.
Tyriq Withers: A Debut to Watch
If you haven’t heard of Tyriq Withers, you’re about to. He’s the breakout from the series Him, where he played a version of himself—a former athlete grappling with identity after the spotlight dims. Casting him as Ledger, another former NFL player navigating life after football, is either lazy typecasting or brilliant meta-casting, depending on how generous you’re feeling.
The trailer gives him space to be tender, which is… refreshing. We don’t see him playing protector or savior. We see him listening. Questioning. Falling for someone everyone told him to avoid. There’s a scene where he and Monroe sit in a parked car, and the silence between them does more work than most scripts manage in full scenes. If Withers can sustain that quiet intensity across a two-hour runtime, he’s got a real career ahead of him.
The chemistry between Monroe and Withers is the film’s biggest gamble. Romance films live or die on that spark—the thing you can’t fake, can’t manufacture in post, can’t CGI into existence. From the trailer, it reads as genuine. Awkward, hesitant, charged with the knowledge that this probably won’t end well but maybe—maybe—it could.
March 2025: Counterprogramming or Confidence?
Universal’s releasing Reminders of Him nationwide on March 13th, 2025. March is a strange dumping ground for studios—too late for awards season, too early for summer blockbusters, wedged between Valentine’s Day romance and spring break spectacle. But it’s also become a sweet spot for mid-budget dramas that don’t need a $50 million opening weekend to justify their existence.
Recent March releases like Creed III and Scream VI proved audiences will show up for character-driven stories if you give them a reason. Reminders of Him has that reason: a built-in fanbase, a rising star trying something new, and a premise that promises catharsis. Whether it delivers on that promise is the real question.
What You Should Know Before ‘Reminders of Him’ Hits Theaters
Maika Monroe’s Dramatic Turn
After years of genre work, Monroe’s casting signals a deliberate pivot—not abandoning horror, but expanding her range into emotional territory that demands vulnerability over survival instinct.
The All-Female Filmmaking Team
Director Vanessa Caswill, co-writers Colleen Hoover and Lauren Levine, and producers Gina Matthews and Hoover bring a unified perspective that shapes the film’s empathetic approach to guilt and redemption.
Tyriq Withers’ Feature Debut
Transitioning from TV’s Him to a starring role opposite Monroe, Withers brings lived experience to Ledger’s post-NFL identity crisis—meta-casting that could either elevate or limit his performance.
Wyoming as Emotional Landscape
The setting isn’t incidental—small-town dynamics intensify Kenna’s isolation while the mountain backdrop offers visual breathing room for a story that could otherwise feel claustrophobic.
March 2026 Release Strategy
Universal’s mid-March slot suggests confidence in counter-programming—targeting audiences hungry for emotional drama between blockbuster seasons, with built-in BookTok fanbase as foundation.
FAQ
Is ‘Reminders of Him’ just another BookTok adaptation cashing in?
It could be, but the creative team and casting suggest otherwise. Monroe’s dramatic shift and Caswill’s TV pedigree bring more weight than typical romance adaptations—though Universal’s marketing will ultimately reveal whether they’re selling substance or just sentiment.
Does the trailer reveal what crime Kenna committed?
No, and that’s probably smart. The “tragic accident” remains vague, which preserves narrative tension—though it risks frustrating viewers who want context before investing emotionally in her redemption arc.
How does this compare to ‘It Ends With Us’ adaptation?
Different beasts entirely. That one’s about escaping cycles of abuse; this one’s about living with irreversible mistakes. Both Hoover adaptations, both emotional, but Reminders leans heavier into consequence over survival.
Will this work for non-Hoover fans?
The trailer suggests yes—if you can handle earnest emotional drama without irony. Monroe and Withers ground it enough that you don’t need BookTok context, just tolerance for heartbreak narratives that take themselves seriously.
