‘Regretting You’ wastes Allison Williams in overwrought Colleen Hoover romance – Review

Love is complicated for Allison Williams and Dave Franco in ‘Regretting You,’ adapted from Colleen Hoover’s book.

• “Regretting You,” adapted from Colleen Hoover’s best-selling book, arrives in movie theaters Oct. 24.
• Allison Williams and Dave Franco are thrown together after their significant others die in a car crash.
• Young stars Mckenna Grace and Mason Thames are the movie’s highlight in every way.

Like many Nicholas Sparks movies before her, here comes Colleen Hoover’s film, attempting to leave no tear unjerked.

While “It Ends With Us” was a hot mess in every way, at least the new romantic drama “Regretting You” (★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Oct. 24) makes sure all its drama is on the screen. And the flick, based on Hoover’s bestselling novel, lays it on thick alongside a lacking narrative and cringey dialogue. On the plus side, the young acting talent and a welcome lightheartedness will keep the eye-rolling to a minimum.

The story follows two couples of high school sweethearts in a small North Carolina town. Morgan (Allison Williams) got pregnant at the end of senior year and married jock boyfriend Chris (Scott Eastwood), and they’re raising 17-year-old aspiring actress Clara (Mckenna Grace), who butts heads regularly with her overprotective mom.

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The other pair is Morgan’s sister Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald) and Jonah (Dave Franco), who ghosted his old pals after graduation for several years before coming back to town – now these two have a newborn son and are thinking about a wedding.

Still with me? Because stuff’s about to get real. Chris and Jenny die in a car accident, and Morgan and Jonah quickly figure out that their loved ones were having a secret affair for years. That reveal drives a bigger wedge between Morgan and Clara, who gets together with Miller (Mason Thames), the movie-loving popular boy at school. (Morgan does NOT approve.) And to add some extra sauce to the mix, Jonah has been crushing on Morgan since they were kids.

“The Fault in Our Stars” director Josh Boone wades back into emotionally turbulent waters with “Regretting You,” which manages to tick off many boxes on the schmaltz-drama bingo card: abandonment issues, unrequited love, dead parents, cancer-ridden relatives and even one big, rain-soaked romantic moment.

Most of the adult side of the plot leans insufferable and overwrought: “There’s no version of you that’s boring,” one person says to the most boring character in the movie. Eastwood and Fitzgerald are barely in the movie long enough to register, Williams’ 30-something mom lacks any actual spirit, and Franco’s painfully earnest single dad can’t decide whether to keep his glasses on and off. (Neither way looks particularly cool for this broody nerd.) Oh, and fun fact: All four actors also play their teen selves, which is monumentally weird.

Fortunately, Grace and Thames are so cute together that the grown-ups don’t even need to matter. (The one exception: Clancy Brown as Miller’s extremely lovable grandpa.) The kids navigate plenty of teen-movie tropes, too, but their combined magnetism lifts the entire movie. In another era, these two would be the king and queen of rom-coms – of all the various love pairings, theirs feels the most genuine amid so much artificial sweetness.

Boone also sprinkles in some physical comedy and funny scenes that keep this Hoover film nimble instead of a completely contrived slog. (And get ready for more of the latest zeitgeisty author, with adaptations of her “Reminders of Him” and “Verity” coming in the new year.) Without its wryness and youthful bent, you’d really be regretting this particular cinematic life choice.